"Most of us instinctively know that our spending is out of control. We know we need to save more. Next subject, please.

"In the coming decades, many forces will shape our economy and our society, but in all likelihood no single factor will have as pervasive effect as the aging of our population," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said last week. The baby boom generation is marching toward retirement and will begin collecting Social Security in 2008. That is only the first sequence in a global demographic transformation of historic proportions. The end result is a population that will be significantly older -- and that very fact changes the way we will work, consume, and, well, save.

The key word here is "save.""

Get the Story:
Mark Trahant: Sound the patriotic call to save (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 10/8)

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