The Morning Paper

(Baby boomers, jogging toward the Bob Dylan concert, and away from work.)


I stumble to the breakfast table. Patrick has already cleaned up the kitchen, and he's got the killer (Hawaiian coconut flavor, y'all) coffee going in the Cuisinart. He's also already brought in the Arizona Republic from the driveway. It is still rolled up in the rubber band, because Patrick is smarter than I am and has therefore not seen the need to open it.

I unfurl the broadsheet, bracing for another wacky front page. I am not disappointed. The lead center story tells us Medicare and Social Security are at risk. Social security will run out by 2031; Medicare by 2019. The reason for this is simple math: More money is going out, they tell us, than is coming in - thanks in part to boomers hitting retirement age and a shortage in the overall workforce.

Scan down to the next story on A1, and we see that there is a severe shortage of workers in Arizona,the land to which so many boomers sprint to retire. "This year," the story reads, "the oldest boomers turn 62 and become eligible for early Social Security benefits." Employers are hoping most boomers keep working, the piece says, as they represent fully one-quarter of the workforce here.

I read the headlines to Patrick, and summarize the stories, as he sits down across from me with his coffee and corn flakes. "So," I say. "We have shortages in Social Security revenues, and not enough workers to keep the state running. Yet we've passed the most restrictive immigration laws in the nation, and this same paper demonizes immigrants nearly every day? Does this make sense to you?"

Patrick shrugs and digs for the sports page, the only part of the paper he reads.

"No," he says. "But then again, I'm not a skilled economist like Russell Pearce."

We laugh. It's about all there is to do.