Wednesday, November 12 at 5:30 PM
Jeff Goldsmith, The Long Baby Boom: An Optimistic Vision for a Graying Generation
__________
Jeff Goldsmith will discuss and sign copies of his new book
The Long Baby Boom
An Optimistic Vision for a Graying Generation
Wednesday, November 12
5:30 PM
In 2006, the first baby boomers turned 60, unleashing a veritable tidal wave of gloomy punditry, advertising for financial services, and forecasts of impending national bankruptcy. In The Long Baby Boom, Jeff Goldsmith counters the predictions of such “catastropharians” with a far more optimistic scenario. Drawing on evidence that most baby boomers plan on working long past age 65, Goldsmith argues that they will have a constructive impact on society over the next twenty years. By assuming a much larger portion of the financial burden of their own retirement and health costs, they will help preserve Social Security and Medicare for the less fortunate and for successive generations. The Long Baby Boom is the first comprehensive forecast of baby boomers’ career plans, health trends, and cultural and political values. Goldsmith’s pro-work, pro-savings, pro-health social policy emphasizes personal responsibility without ripping the social safety net. Optimistic and innovative, The Long Baby Boom doesn’t promise a cloud-free future, but it does reassure us that the sky isn’t falling.
“Too often experts look at the aging of the baby boom and see only insoluble fiscal, health, and social problems. Jeff Goldsmith takes this demographic challenge as an opportunity to adopt innovative policies that would create a more equitable and productive economy and a healthier society.” —Robert D. Reischauer, President, The Urban Institute
“This is an important, timely, and constructive book—a must-read for those concerned about the demographic and political challenges facing U.S. social policy as the boomer generation reaches their 60s. Goldsmith proposes many ideas—some bold and controversial—for how this huge generation can thrive while continuing to contribute to the broader social good. His pro-growth, pro-savings, and pro-health improvement agenda offers a strong rebuttal to the ‘sky is falling’ conventional wisdom that he terms ‘catastrophanarian.’ His thoughtful proposals should be the basis for a national debate about how we each want to grow older and what kind of society we want to do it in.” —John Rother, Group Executive Officer of Policy and Strategy, AARP
Jeff Goldsmith is the President of Health Futures, Inc. and Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia. He is a University of Chicago–trained social scientist who has lectured at leading business schools in the United States, including the University of Chicago and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked for both the governor of Illinois and the dean of medicine at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine as a public policy analyst. For the past twenty-five years, he has served as a strategy consultant both to business and nonprofit enterprises.
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