Description
Book SynopsisBaby Boomer Bust? examines and analyzes the meltdown of 2008/2009 from economic, political and social perspectives and illuminates how the meltdown has directly impacted Baby Boomers -- once known as the generation of promise, but now the generation of panic. It examines the downturn’s impact on Boomers’ lifestyles, dreams, aspirations and future plans. Baby Boomer Bust? raises some provocative questions regarding the generation’s ability to survive the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Trade Review"... a revealing insight into the effects of the recent economic downturn on the very generation that helped to create one of the world’s most powerful and influential economies. Mr. Chiocchi’s examination brings into sharp relief some of the more salient, and subtle, social-consequences of one of the greatest economic disasters in the history of Western civilization."
--Michael J. Formica, MS, MA, EdM, Psychotherapist, Social Scientist
"Choicchi provides a lucid and vivid account of the combined flawed social policies and ingrained corporate attitudes that have brought the US economy to its knees. His portraits of representative Americans dazed, staggering and angry at how the American dream has failed them offers us a set of compelling lessons concerning excessive optimism about the infallibility of the American economy and widespread indifference towards the vast inequalities between the very wealthy and everyone else. Their stories illustrate the collision of middle and upper middle class Boomer expectations about a comfortable, fulfilling, secure and relaxed retirement period for which many have worked so hard, and the harsh realities of the need to stay in the workforce, defer indefinitely luxury vacations, and require adult children to pay for their own college educations or that of the grandchildren. His book offers some guidance (in the areas of housing alternatives, job retraining for career change, filing for bankruptcy, and taping low cost and free community resources to enhance meaning and personal enrichment) for individuals seeking to cope with dramatic reduction in income, property value, investments and overall net worth. Beyond these helpful suggestions, "Baby Boomers Bust" is a wake up call for the need to challenge the assumptions on which the American economy is based and to move more in the direction of the social democracy models of European countries such as the Netherlands."
--Dr. Ronald Manheimer, Former Executive Director, North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement
