What happens when the baby boomers die?

[LargeSquareRock]

Sorry about the title, but that’s literally it. I’ve wondered this since I was a child.

Obviously we are about to enter a 20 year spike when a smaller number of tax payers support a higher number of elderly people in healthcare and elder care.

What happens in 20 years when the spike is over? Do we have empty care homes, plentiful housing and easily available health care?

I really have no evil agenda asking this- demographics has always fascinated me.

I’m a boomer and pay tax. I don’t get any means tested benefits or handouts.. When I die, whstever I can leave will go to my ACs. What else would it be?🤔

Well, according to the office of national statistics, the population will continue to age, and increase, so I wouldn't worry about what happens when the boomers due, there will be no bonanza of empty houses and plummeting prices.

Quote.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) projects that the UK population will be 78 million in 2050. This is based on the following assumptions:
Immigration will continue to be 315,000 higher than emigration each year
Deaths will slightly exceed births
The ONS also projects that the UK population will: Reach 70 million in two years, Reach 73.7 million by mid-2036, and Reach 76.6 million by mid-2046.
The ONS's projections are based on assumptions about future fertility, mortality, and migration. They also include mid-year population estimates.

The UK's population is also aging, with one in four people projected to be over 65 by 2050. The number of people over 80 is also projected to almost double by 2030, reaching eight million by 2050.

Likewise.

Hopefully governments will have free votes on the right to die and people of all generations can, if they choose, write a legal document when fit and able. There should be extremely strict rules and legal protection for vulnerable people. I personally would not want to live with advanced dementia or a terminal illness but it should absolutely be a personal choice. I'd like to leave my family some money rather than spend it on nursing home fees.

Who are gen x please?

I'm a Boomer. I often feel that people are just waiting for me to die off!

@Sharptonguedwoman 🤣 it's funny as that question often is used to define us.

We are the ignored ones currently... born between 1965-1980. Children of boomers and the generation before (The Silent Generation).

Here are some possibilities

1. More vibrant work force, greater innovation
2. Increased disposable income in younger generation
3. Healthcare and retirement facilities for older people may decline
4. More preventative care, mental health care and chronic illness care
5. Social services might focus more on working age people
6. Leadership roles may go to younger people
7. More jobs than people available
8. Evolution of society
9. More openness to immigration

There will be a new generation of elderly people. Don't forget Gen X are now in their 50s or close to it.

The care homes will be repurposed to house vulnerable young adults who cannot support themselves financially or socially.

My parents had five children and so did I but I was the only one to have children

It's a good question and there is no easy answer. The post WW2 baby bulge will certainly die off over the next 10-20 years. That includes me so, yes, it is a bit stark. The fertility rate has been below replacement for quite a while but it takes many years before this feeds through to a reducing population. If that is managed, there will be few problems. It is the proportion of dependents (which includes children) to workers that is important, as you say.

A smaller population is to be welcomed, in my opinion, as it would bring us closer to sustainability. I say closer because with climate change there will be increasing challenges to the food producers in our country. A lower population will mean that there would be a surplus of housing, and therefore a reduction in house prices, which should bring joy to those who thought they would never be able to afford a home. "Getting on the housing ladder" of course would be a thing of the past as it is an increasing demand for a limited supply which puts house prices up. Governments need to manage this carefully as home owners expect to be sitting on a pension pot and will be on the unhappy side of this equation.

If you have no family or friends that you want to pass it on to by the house or the money it will get sold and the money then goes to the government

In Japan I believe, you can find houses for $100 because of the infertility/very low birth rates the housing market has plunged.

no tenants because, there is noone. 😵‍💫

Hi,

with all the pensions schemes going on : employees must enroll their employees and the 25% added by gov when you pay in privates ones. I think they did carefully realise that to pay 25% is ok and leaves them with plenty.

yes in 20years, housing will be more affordable but still not in the very best locations so where work is. However in all the « only 40min away from »…yeah…these will be empty. Not needed anymore.

EmployeRs

We (the country) cope. As we coped with wars, fuel shortages, financial meltdowns, Covid…

LargeSquareRock · Yesterday 10:09

PenelopePitStrop · Yesterday 10:08
I expect the baby boomers’ children will have grown older and be needing health care, care homes etc.
But the baby boomers have had massively fewer children than their parents.

Boomer here - worked for 47 years - three kids, all employed, ten grandchildren, all smart and focused, with good work ethic. None of us have ever claimed any kind of benefit. None of us has been a drain on society. Get your facts right.

I'm 74 and in the US. Many of us wonder the same. We concluded that care homes will be much less expensive to operate in the future.

I'm a boomer & thank God still active contributing to the community cooking and transporting. Fact is we got the benefits of a good NHS, free school milk, dentistry etc. Equally I paid into the system, personally, 45 years NI stamps and taxes. Heavens knows who, or how my care will be funded!! Hopefully it will be a swift exit before the need arises.

I thought it went to the crown 👑
Because of course poor old Charlie needs every penny he can get.

Someone really wants all the boomers to due soon.
Revolting, and inaccurate, ageism.

This is just offensive.

Evolution of society

You think this hasn't happened in the lifetime of older people? In my adult life, so since 1979, all of the following have changed as the result of concerted campaigning by people a bit older than me:

1. Married women finally able to deal with their own tax affairs instead of having to get their husbands to do it
2. Rape in marriage finally criminalised
3. Age of consent for gay men reduced to the same as everyone else
4. Discrimination on the grounds of various protected characteristics made illegal (Equality Act and its predecessors)
5. Disability activism has made many inroads, including a move to having charities and support groups led by people with disabilities
6. People with mental health problems and learning disabilities are now mostly in the community - not well enough supported, but it's better than being in an institution for life
7. Maternity pay and benefits have improved
8. Free early years education is now an entitlement
9. University education is now much more widely available
10. Environmental concerns have moved from being a fringe concern of people written off as nutters to a mainstream issue in politics all over the world.

There are lots more. The Boomers you seem to despise and their predecessors have not generally been socially conservative. The changes pushed through in the 1960s and 70s were incredibly wide-ranging and influential.

I was born in 1959 and I've always known I was a baby boomer, so it's not that recent.