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The Aging, Their Communities and Harnessing Senior Power
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  There's a positive side to an aging state! Seniors have more time to volunteer, be politically active and use their years of institutional knowledge to teach and assist historical societies. A new report finds too that the older generation leads all other generations in their input to a community's social capital. But the relationship between the elderly and their community must be symbiotic; they can only help their communities; if their communities make themselves accessible to the elderly in terms of transportation, services and access to restaurants and the arts. Today we wrap up our series looking at this aging demographic's relation to their communities, and how communities can harness this growing amount of "senior power".
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Good morning and thank you for continuing to educate me on the finer points of living in my newly-adopted home here in New Hampshire.
My husband and I moved here from Illinois a year ago. He is 60 years old and is a returning New-Englander. I'm a 58 year old born and bred Chicagoan. Our original intent was to move to Maine to be near his 85 year old mother but a job offer in Manchester landed us in New Hampshire instead and we are now delighted to be living our dream of being back in New England.
My concern is that our dream does not become a nightmare. At our age, most baby boomers are scaling down in preparation of retirement. We, instead, both left good jobs back in Illinois as well as a lower cost, less strenuous lifestyle, (we were living in a condo). We have and continue to contribute to the New Hampshire economy, having purchased a fairly pricey piece of land in Deerfield and constructed a new home. The cost of living here relative to cost of land, new housing, taxes, ENERGY!!!, impact fees, increased gasoline use, etc. has strained our finances so I intend to re-enter the job market this fall. I had hoped that the deficit of younger workers would enable me to easily secure employment at my age, but the comment of one of your callers on Monday has me concerned. In spite of her higher education level, she has been unable to secure appropriate employment.
Even if only a small percentage of older residents intend to remain in the labor market, New Hampshire employer's should look at an aging population as a tremendous OPPORTUNITY to take advantage of the LIFETIME SKILLS and STRONG WORK ETHIC that an older population brings to that market. My husband's ability to quickly secure employment prior to our departure from Illinois certainly reflects the need that New Hampshire employers must have for skilled workers (he's a Quality Engineer). It's not likely that we will be able to retire in New England as comfortably as we would have in Illinois so it's likely that one of both of us will need to remain employed longer than we had hoped. The April issue of AARP Bulletin hi-lited the innovative ways in which employers are tapping into an aging labor pool, creating a win/win scenario. Perhaps more folks could be retained in the workplace and require less in the way of senior subsidies if allowed to augment their incomes through part time employment or job sharing. As seniors reach Medicare age, a reduced need for full coverage health insurance could even become a cost savings for employers.
I do recognize the fact that it is nearly impossible for younger families to survive here, housing and energy costs being what they are, but perhaps seniors giving up their older homes as they move into 55 and older developments will free up more affordable housing for younger families. But until such time as there is a reduction in the OVERALL cost of living in this beautiful state, viewing seniors as a RESOUCE would go a long way toward making lemonade out of those lemons.
Best regards,
Judy Marshall