WE THE PEOPLE … (OF A CERTAIN AGE)
Changes in how we boomers live out our remaining years may very well influence how effectively our country and our planet outlive us.
One book from my last summer reading that sticks in my mind has the very long title, “The Flag, the Cross and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.” In the book author Bill McKibben relates how America has changed over the course of his lifetime, a roughly 75-year period of history that closely parallels this writer’s life.
His short collection of essays traces troubling trends in our nation’s increased political polarization (The Flag), a more secular society (The Cross) and widening income and wealth disparity reflected in the largely suburban-based “haves’ and inner-city or rural “have-nots” (The Station Wagon). Each of those trends makes up a sober and dispassionate chapter full of statistics and salient observations.
It’s the book’s shorter final chapter devoted to “People of a Certain Age” to which this writer can particularly relate. In that short chapter McKibben argues that many of us aging and well-to-do boomers have the unique opportunity – nay, the responsibility – to share some of our wealth with younger generations faced with repairing and cleaning up much of the mess around us today.
That mess is particularly evidenced by a degrading environment, warming planet and widening economic disparity to all of which we boomers have been undeniable contributors.
McKibben also stresses that despite our ages and our shortcomings he sees boomers as crucial players in restoring America and the planet to a sustainable and equitable future trajectory. That’s because we people of a certain age have accumulated a huge share of our nation’s wealth. And that money is needed now for that task.
According to a recent report from the American Association of Retired People (AARP), in 2020 nearly 22 million Americans 55 years of age or older had a net worth of $1.0 million or more; that is, at a minimum we hold $22 trillion in national wealth. That’s the money we have put into our homes, pension plans and individual stock and bond equity accounts.
And that’s just the lower end of estimated boomer wealth; many are millionaires several times over. To put those numbers in perspective, boomer wealth is roughly three times the entire US federal government’s 2022 fiscal year budget; about equal in value to the US 2021 gross national product; and half the $46.0 trillion valuation of 2021 US stock market assets.
That’s not a trivial amount of assets!
McKibben recognizes that most of my generation is now too old to engage in street protests and civil disobedience demonstrations for environmental and social justice, though some still do so, no longer concerned that an arrest might jeopardize their careers.
More importantly, a significant share of us is well-enough positioned financially to support following generations who have little choice but to work to halt and gradually reverse current trends toward despoiling our planet and dispossessing large segments of its human populations.
But, how feasible is it to tap some of those trillions of boomer dollars for such causes? What concerns this writer are the cultural, political and economic headwinds confronting any efforts at channeling boomers’ wealth toward addressing our nation’s and planet’s needs.
At the same time this writer is encouraged by ways now open for us seniors to tack into those headwinds with steps that can effectively direct some of our wealth toward promising social and environmental efforts.
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First, it’s useful to acknowledge some of the headwinds confronting efforts to enlist boomers and our money to help address our nation’s political, social and environmental ailments. Among those headwinds:
A swollen sense of entitlement
Many of us boomers are comfortably and tenaciously ensconced in a mindset of “I’ve earned it, so now I’m going to enjoy it.” This writer has frequently seen a reflection of that mindset in the “We’re spending our kid’s inheritance” bumper stickers on campers and mobile homes stopped at highway rest areas.
Examples of those boomer lifestyles include what many of us consider retirement indulgences like second-home vacation properties, exotic recreational travel and cruises, luxury senior living communities, and pampering of kids and grandkids with so much stuff they use garages and rent self-storage units to contain it all.
One metric of this boomer mindset is the volume and content of this writer’s household junk mail. Over the years that content has shifted from pitches for home mortgages and kids’ summer camp tuitions to advertisements for luxury retirement communities, cruise ship travel and supplemental medical insurance coverage. Yes, there are also periodic donation pitches from social justice and environmental groups but the glossy quality of the luxury sailing and senior leisure living offerings clearly indicates those businesses know how to pitch their services and products to seniors. Social justice and environmental groups need to learn and adapt the same techniques.
Illiquid assets
A second headwind is that boomers have much of our accumulated savings tied up in illiquid assets. This includes particularly those who are house-rich and cash-poor, many of whom want to age in place, in the homes and communities where they raised their families.
That’s good. But it constrains their capacity to transition to retirement lifestyles that permit putting in place financial arrangements like placing money in charitable remainder trusts that provide income while still alive, and transfer at death at least a share if those assets to sponsoring environmental or social justice advocacy organizations.
The rising costs of growing old
There are strong everyday pragmatic demands that work against seniors’ taking steps to re-allocate their wealth toward addressing our nation’s and our planet’s needs. Among the most tangible is the fear of outliving our savings, running out of money and ending life alone and in poverty … or living off our kids.
Also, our rigid material lifestyles make it hard for us to get off the consumer treadmill and change spending practices. Add to that the amounts of money boomers spend on medical interventions and medications to address the aching afflictions of aging bodies.
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This writer believes there is also reason for hope. Boomers today have several steps that they can take, and that political, spiritual and community leaders can promote, to address those headwinds:
Aligning our investments with our values
A few years back this writer and his spouse sat down with our investment broker to scrub our asset accounts of equities in firms whose products or services include fossil fuel extraction and use, gambling, guns, tobacco, private prisons, or those which do not meet objectively measured corporate social environmental, social or governance criteria.
We discovered the ample online tools and specific mutual fund accounts – that perform equally well or better than the market – for building “green” and “socially responsible” investment portfolios.
Another option to we chose was to support environmental and social justice organizations that offer charitable remainder trust annuities which provide income while we live, and then assure that our savings go to good causes after we’re gone.
Applying pocketbook economics
Patronize green firms, even when prices of their products and services may be somewhat higher because of the added environmental costs they internalize in their operations.
Today, it is easier to access online directories of green products and services, and many more firms have gotten on board with steps to become more carbon neutral and environmentally friendly. Just watch out for ‘green washing’ by firms who claim environmental creds when none are really there!
Bundling together experiences and material gifts for meaningful giving
Start “gramping” with our grandkids by taking them on eco-vacations, where they can get exposed to conservationists who can sensitize them to the fragility of living creatures and the delicate habitats on which they, and all of us, depend.
Or gift them books, games or puzzles about nature or farming themes along with a donation in grandkids’ names to organizations that provide, say, laying hens, milk cows or breeding pigs to famers in countries like Somalia or Haiti. In addition to transferring a little of our wealth to impoverished families in other lands, the practice sensitizes our new generations to the importance of helping those in other lands to survive, even to thrive.
Focusing our “grouchiness”
It's time for this “grouchy grandpa and meddling grandma to prod our kids and kids’ kids about being environmental and social activists.
Example: Over dinner when grandkids come home from college for the holidays, we’re asking “So what’re you and your classmates doing to pressure your school’s board of directors to divest its endowment funds from fossil fuels and place them in renewable energy investments instead? Let us know because, we only want leave some of my money to schools that have a socially responsible investment strategy for its donors’ bequests.”
Practicing legacy peddling
This writer doesn’t find himself among the super wealthy who look to make large enough donations to our alma maters that we can count on our names being attached to a campus building. We welcome the opportunity to engage in legacy giving but target our giving to academic programs that reflect our values. Scholarship funds are one obvious destination not just at the university level but also for trade schools, particularly for promising at-risk kids from low-income households.
Reaching out from the grave
Finally, this writer and his spouse are leaving a bequest that our heirs can manage and direct toward responsible environmental organizations and impactful social justice programs.
Among the inheritance options we chose was a simple formula: If there are two offspring beneficiary family members, divide inheritance three ways: a third to each child and third to charitable organizations working to improve the environment, to helping at-risk youth complete schooling or start work, or to advance other worthy causes to bring about a better world. (If three kids, then divide net bequests into quarters, etc.)
Maybe, just maybe, such stewarded giving will serve as an example for our heirs to emulate.
Each of these steps are tools for putting our country back on a sustainable and more stable pathway toward broad-based prosperity. None of them require dramatic lifestyle adjustments that preclude us boomers from comfortably living out our golden years. In fact, such measures might even improve our quality of life.
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Collectively, we people of a certain age have both abundant resources and a range of options to help posterity restore and sustain the environment and society we’ve enjoyed. There’s no excuse today for not taking steps toward a better planet and more equitable society for future generations as well.
Our senior generation should feel confident it can be done. We can site several success stories during our lifetimes:
On the environmental front
The application of fuel efficiency standards that are gradually weaning American drivers from gas-guzzling vehicles;
measures to restore the quality of our rivers and waterways by regulating the industrial, agricultural and urban waste;
adoption and enforcement of national standards and international treaties to reduce acid rain and restore atmospheric ozone;
the global banning of DDT in response to awareness of the ‘silent spring’ endangered wildlife.
On the political, economic and social fronts
Internationally,
the end of colonialism, particularly in Africa and South Asia;
the founding of global organizations aimed at resolving disputes and preventing open conflict through dialogue and negotiation;
formation of an international institutions to transfer of financial resources and technical know-how to emerging developing nations – think, the green revolution in agriculture which prevented starvation of millions.
And domestically,
ongoing work at restoring and protecting human rights and civil liberties;
technological advances in manufacturing, transportation, medicine, and communications on which new industries and millions of new jobs are now based.
In 2076, a little more than a half-century away, America will celebrate its tri-centennial. Steps we boomers take now can help our progeny achieve a nation worthy of a 300-year celebration. It’s even within our nation’s grasp to restore its carbon footprint to what it was fifty years ago when America started its second century as a country. It seems like a reasonable goal to achieve.
My generation is anything but anachronistic and irrelevant in setting a course of action for the future direction of our nation and the planet. Our hold on much of the nation’s purse strings assures that we can bring about change, either wisely or foolishly. There are enough of us who are financially well-positioned to foster and fund the initial restorative steps that the generations who follow us can take to steward our planet and society responsibly.
So, people of a certain age, let’s get busy at examining how we can promptly adjust our lifestyles and boost our bequests!
Changes we make to how we live out our remaining years may well influence how well our country and our planet outlive us. ###