The core thesis on this site has centered around the upcoming “Boomerpocalypse” where we see 60 million boomers all hit the retirement age of 65 in 2030. We’ve cautioned repeatedly that this will deplete the labor force of 60 million workers but not reduce demand in goods and services by 60 million so what will naturally occur is a labor squeeze. In, “What’s Happening With Hourly Wages? T-Rex Will Eat First!” we made the case that deep pocket corporations like Walmart, Amazon, and Apple would hire all the best people first and pay the highest wages while everyone else was left to fight over the scraps.
A story out from ABC News paints a bleak sneak peak into what will continue to grow as a problem for the elderly over the next decade. Long term care facilities for the sick and elderly are all struggling to survive. From ABC News:
Santa Rita is among hundreds of long-term care facilities nationwide — from large chains to mom-and-pop operations — that are fighting for their survival. Many are being forced to close their doors, while others are having to turn patients away in order to survive.
ABC News
Keep in mind that this is occurring now, not in 2030 when we know all boomers will be age 65+ and retiring in mass droves. There aren’t enough young people to back fill these roles so hard choices will need to be made. A few days ago, we wrote about a national teacher shortage of 500,000 occurring way before we have 60 million boomers leave the work force.
Perhaps robot will finally become viable to step in to support some of these activities but we’re skeptical that will happen. The only thing to do is to prepare by having a large sum of money available to be able to hire the labor scraps that big corp leaves behind.
Stay tuned and stay solvent.