Baby Boomers and the age wave

Australian economist, Ross Gittins has some interesting observations to make about the much maligned baby boomers and their effect on the imminent age wave.

"increasing longevity and declining fertility are the two dominant influences over population ageing... had there been no baby boom, population ageing would have started a lot earlier than it did, with the age dependency rate (the ratio of those aged 65 and over to those aged 15 to 64) higher than projected until the mid-2030s... so the main effect of the baby boom has been to defer population ageing and make its onset more pronounced."

For a fuller and much more eloquent explanation see Ross Gittins (2007) Gittinomics, Chap 10 "Our ageing population" ISBN 978 1 74175 0928

Boomers in the library

Beth Dempsey's article "What boomers want" in Library Journal [ 15/July/2007] draws attention to the opportunities that libraries must seize to effectively reach and serve boomer clients. When she says "Rather than believe our years are advancing, we boomers simply redefine: 60 is the new 30." there's a key message for both programming and marketing library activities - boomers may not relate to library activities branded in any way to appeal to 'older adults', 'the elderly' or 'retirees'.

Even more useful is her summary of "What boomers need"

• Help plotting retirement that includes work (maybe an entirely new career), volunteerism, leisure, travel, and continued learning
• Retirement extends to the business community at large—businesses need help preparing for the “brain drain” that occurs when boomers retire
• Financial planning and job training for women at risk of poverty
• Healthy living and fitness workshops
• Arts, culture, lectures, and programs for mental agility
• Genealogy and support in capturing life stories

What's in a name?

One of my 'hobbies' is chasing down the more positive terms used to describe older people in our communities and their engagement. When Active, engaged, valued: older people and NSW public libraries was published I deliberately chose the ambiguous "active, engaged, valued" to describe both the people and the libraries.

The US based Purpose Prize uses the tag "Leading with experience" but the best one I've seen was in the July issue of the Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association Newsletter - "YOPPIE" - A youthful older person positively interested in everything.

Super senior!

Olive Riley is the world's oldest blogger at a spritely 107 years young. Her blog All About Olive is very popular with about 10, 000 hits a day. Olive is an Aussie, born in the outback town of Broken Hill in 1889 and now lives in a hostel in Woy Woy which is about 80 kilometres north of Sydney.

Olive also co-directed a film with Mike Rubbo "All About Olive" (2005).