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One of the unfortunate realities of the Boomer generation is that we're terribly underfunded for retirement. The Employee Benefits Research Institute does annual survey work in this area and has shown that less than 1 in 5 Boomer households has a net worth of $250,000 or more. According to Fidelity Investment hat's just about enough to pay for the out-of-pocket costs in our current Medicare system--and that's before worrying about things like food, clothing and shelter. 

While people may suggest our generation was profligate, I think there are other factors at work. Ours is the first generation to be leaving the workforce without the safety net of an robust "defined benefit" pension plan. We were the "crash test dummies" for the rollout of 401(k) plans--an experiment in retirement funding now largely recognized as having failed. 

As a group, we're going to be heavily dependent on society's safety net programs to avoid some pretty grim consequences. Without a robust Social Security program and a much enhanced Medicare program, millions of Boomers are going to live out their declining years in poverty. Our generation is going to need to re-discover it's roots of political activity. There are well over seventy million of us--enough to sway any election in the US for decades to come. We're going to have to come together to make sure that the inter-generational promises the US has traditionally made are kept now that its our turn to collect.