AARP’s Ideas@50+ celebration of the boomer generation comes to San Diego

AARP, now a name, previously the acronym for “American Association of Retired Persons”, will be hosting  a sold-old exposition with the vaguely webby tag of “Ideas@50+” this Thursday through Saturday (September 4-6) at the San Diego Convention Center at 111 West Harbor Drive, San Diego.

For three days, entertainment celebrities, financial wizards, retired folks, and any other variety of baby boomer will gather to hear lectures, attend sessions, and watch and participate in a talent competition, much like “American Idol”. Among the well-known attendees will be keynote speaker Arianna Huffington, actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Kevin Spacey, NFL hall-of-famer Dan Marino and cooking and crafts icon Martha Stewart. They are all boomers, and all have graced the cover of AARP magazine.

The generation known as boomers, (I guess it’s time to drop the “baby”), are defined as those born from 1946, the first post-World War II year to 1964, arbitrarily counted as a generation. There are currently 78 million boomers, still a larger demographic grouping than any other similar span of birth years. This year, the youngest of the boomers reached 50 years old. Up to thirty trillion (trillion!) dollars can be expected to be inherited by all the heirs of all the long-hair generation.

Another statistic concerning aging and social security: 10,000 people in the United States turn 65 each day. This trend will be true at least until 2030. Conversely, less than 12,000 infants are born every day, a number that is steadily declining and will fall below the 10,000 a day mark, well before 2030. Previously, in recorded history, there were always more children under 15 years old, than adults over 65. It is estimated that by 2025 this will be reversed, and for the first time, seniors will outnumber minors in the U.S.

This may have a recognizable effect on our culture, the job market, advertising, and even family structure and living arrangements. The boomers have been the largest generation in North America since they became teenagers, and they will apparently continue have the largest number of members. Just as music changed when they began buying records, the economy will remain tied to their age group and their decisions as they grow older.