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Forum for issues around aging?
February 25, 2013 - 2:54pm
It's been suggested that we should have a new forum specifically for issues encountered by baby boomers and/or aging in general and we'd like some feedback from babblers.
Is this something that would be useful or helpful, or does Body and Soul already provide that kind of space for babblers?
Separate forum please. Issues of aging usually end up in all the other forums, difficult to search for anything specific with regards to issues of aging.
I have a different reason for being interested in a seperate forum, and others might find this useful.
I look back in this forum of Body and Soul, and there has not even been a COMMENT, let alone a new thread, anything to do with aging, since September.
Think of it as an experiment. If there is a forum titled, Aging....
will people open more threads?
and if they do, is that sustained more than a couple months?
[If yes to both, are there other forums that should be added?]
I have a sometimes idle hobby of seeing what does and does not get attention on Babble.
My general observation is that people pay attention to thread titles- that the forum location does not matter.
But does having a dedicated forum make it more likely people will initiate threads? [And then: if they do, do tohose get much traffic?]
You made my point - talking about aging is everywhere but where it should be - for example:
Mulcair Talks to CARP - a current thread about aging - in the canadian politics forum!
Are old people an unfair burden on society? - a current thread about aging - in the canadian politics forum!
...and threads on baby boomers are all over the place.
Thanks Rebecca for the suggestion.
Sounds like a plan, now if I can only remember where I put my keyboard so I can create this post.
Articles like this could be discussed in an aging forum
Does New Brunswick have the answer to Canada's pension funding crisis?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/02/21/f-shared-risk-pension-pla...
I don't really like Ageing as a forum title though. We are ageing from the moment of birth. Could anyone think of a more catchy title, neither "Zoomers" nor "toddling towards the tomb"?
"Senior Issues"
"Seniors Health Issues"
"Growing Old Gracefully"
"Retirement and Pension Issues"
"How to Keep Those Young Whippersnappers In Line"
...I can think of more if requested.
I'm not a senior yet - but I think anyone of at least 50 could be concerned. As could younger cohorts, for other reasons - though putting boomers and older people on an ice floe is not an option.
Lol. It could be called 'Ice Floe'...
Woe from the Floe
Too funny! But the name can be decided if/when a forum is actually created.
If you're looking for reasons against, I could see it becoming a forum dominated by boomer issues, in which case my already latent generational resentment could get worse. I would probably deal with it by avoiding that forum.
ETA: Sorry, this was an ungenerous comment, probably informed by what I see in mainstream media, which is not the kind of topics we see covered on Rabble.ca.
Tales from the crypt.
That's okay. I have not-so-latent generational issues. Just a different generation.
Some of us Boomers haven't hit 50 yet.
Oh... I thought it said "issues around arguing". Guess I should put my glasses on. Nevermind.
There are some CARP (and other) polls that might be interesting to discuss around senior issues, such as this one:
CARP Taxation & Budget Poll
excerpt:
2. What do you think is the most useful step the government could take in the budget to deal with the proposal to raise the age of eligibility for OAS?
Repeal OAS age change 580 Votes 38.3 %
Fund provinces to replace OAS for all seniors 65 to 67 70 Votes 4.6 %
Fund provinces to replace OAS for seniors 65 to 67 who need it 259 Votes 17.1 %
Replace OAS for seniors 65 to 67 who need it as a federal measure and take political credit for it 268 Votes 17.7 %
OTHER 33 Votes 2.2 %
NOTHING 205 Votes 13.5 %
DON’T KNOW 98 Votes 6.5 %
Total1513 Votes
excerpt:
10. If you’re retired, do you receive CPP, OAS and/or GIS?
CPP only 230 Votes 15.2 %
CPP and OAS 963 Votes 63.6 %
CPP and GIS 15 Votes 1.0 %
CPP, OAS, GIS 92 Votes 6.1 %
None of these 71 Votes 4.7 %
NOT RETIRED 142 Votes 9.4 %
Total1513 Votes
(just one example of the many senior-related polls out there...)
Caissa, are you technically a boomer? I thought boomerdom ended at 1960, meaning all boomers would be at least 52 (and turn 53 this year).
I'm born in late 1963.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/baby-boom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Boomer
http://www.babyboomers.com/about_nabb/
Yes, I see that definitions vary, and obviously, so did the moment of the boom. It was usually somewhat later in countries devastated by the Second World War; moreover, a much higher percentage of men of peak reproductive age was killed in some of those (and of course, the fittest).
And of course the term originated in the US, a country that entered the War a couple of years later than Canada and most European countries.
I've heard the term "Zoomer" but I've always thought that was coined by Moses Znaimer to sell his magazine.
The reason I have heard for declaring an end to the Baby Boom before 1964 in Canada, is that the earlier broad adoption of the birth control pill and steep drop in birth rate in Quebec. Dont know if that is true, and dont know what was happening with the ROC birth rate in the early 60s.
My mother started taking the pill in early 1962 after kid #6. Prior to that, the child spacing is without exception relentless. No idea about other families.
From the Canadian Encyclopedia linked in my previous post:
Between 1940 and 1965 the annual number of births in Canada rose from 253 000 in 1940 to 479 000 in 1960, but dropped to 419 000 in 1965. Over a period of 25 years, the baby boom produced about 1.5 million more births than would otherwise have occurred (about 8.6 million), an increase of more than 18%. By 1965, however, people were marrying at a later age and were waiting longer to have children, partly because more women were entering the workforce and partly because there was general access to better methods of BIRTH CONTROL. (See WOMEN IN THE LABOUR FORCE.)
I was born in '65. If I'm a "boomer", where is my house, where is my pension plan, where was my job when I finished university? (For that matter, when was my Summer of Love?) Statistically you could argue I'm a baby boomer. Socially, culturally and economically, I'm not.
Douglas Coupland, born in 1961, defined the generation following the baby boomers.
I guess they stopped giving them out after '63, JAS.
I guess I self-identify as a boomer.
According to my extensive (not) research, a Zoomer is a totally new a kind of Boomer. One who breaks retirement tradition, a ZOOMER™, according to the following criteria is:
-knows the difference between primary (inevitable) and secondary (reversible) aging
-monitors inherited health risks and practices preventive measures that reduce those risks
-performs daily exercise: aerobics for endurance, anaerobics for strength, neurobics for brain power
-calculates daily nutritional and caloric needs based on age, gender, and weight
-orchestrates a social support system of companions, close friends, and a confidante
-cultivates a spiritual life, practicing faith, and participating in organized religion
-enjoys a positive self-concept, and a passion for living life to the fullest
-achieves the resources necessary to live an adventurous life thanks to sound retirement planning
-serves as a role model for age peers via voluntary service and advocacy
Now, if that isn't enough to make you throw up in your mouth, I don't know what will.
Is there a head count of these?
Most boomers missed the Summer of Love too.
Not surprising. You needed to be born by 1950, already living in a groovy urban hot spot when you came of age, and ready to jump aboard.