There are many dated concepts embedded in this article. The work environment, in high tech, should be based on the sharing of ideas...which can easily be achieved via telecommuting (no cars)...just sit at home, anywhere in the world, with video presence among the team members. Many of the jobs discussed here will simply evaporate (disruption). Manual labor will still be required, but the rates will rise dramatically to support it. Commuting from distant places can and will be solved with commuter trains and vans and flex schedules.

I find this discussion to be lacking in forward thinking.

@Jeff, I like it when news stories don't base things on unfounded predictions.

The baby boomers have taxed us mightily and squandered the money. Most recent example: our recently added gas tax.

You think it goes to fix roads? Well, not so fast - it doesn't actually allow any new road construction. So we are paying the gas tax (again - this is the third gas tax squandered) and it will not improve congestion at all. And it is heavily regressive on the poor, on commuters, i.e. the young workers.


Want to relieve housing stress? Build transportation out to areas with lower cost land.

But will our state do so? No. The gas tax is squandered, and High-Speed Boondoggle doesn't serve regional rail needs. We could really use more lanes across the Bay and 3 or 4 rail connections to Livermore and Central Valley. But while regional rail plans die on the vine, the High-speed boondoggle soaks up time, money and attention, while providing no visible benefit to anyone, anytime.

The challenges facing younger workers? Our state politics. It is bad policy which is hurting younger workers. Frankly, the baby boomers can't kick the bucket soon enough, so that we can start to make the state work again.

I'm 55 years old and at the tail end of the baby boomers. I grew up in this area and have been an apartment renter most of my life. Most of my paycheck is used to pay my rent, especially today with the rental market that favors property owners. I've had to live off of my savings during the times when the economy tanked and the companies I worked for laid off most of their workforce. Today, with most of my income paying my ever increasing rent and nothing left over for my savings account, I will not be able to retire until I drop dead. I wish I was one of the lucky ones who will be able to retire.

@ Squandered: Why are you blaming the baby boomers who are largely a product of WWII? If you want to point fingers, blame Hitler. He started WWII which resulted in the death of over 60 million people, about half a million from the US. People had lots of babies (baby boomers) after the war to make up for the loss of lives. The world changed after WWII, largely because of new opportunities for the soldiers that weren't available before. Masses of people moved out west because soldiers from the midwest who were stationed in CA didn't want to return to the snow. Technology also changed. Most of the baby boomers weren't even 20 years old when the changes occurred. Every generation is responsible for changes, but it's unfair to blame one generation for all problems.

All presidents of the United States, with the exception of Obama and Bush, were not baby boomers, and the only baby boomer Governor of California was Arnold Scwarzenegger. The US government has largely been run by the generation born prior to the baby boomers.

Am I the only one who hates the term "baby boomers"? Makes me think of B-52s dropping crying baby bombs. It makes me think of exploding babies.

The term "millennial" is almost as bad.

Either manual labor jobs are totally replaced by automation and self-driving trucks, creating mass unemployment and possibly leading to technocrat/cyborg induced mass sterilization and eugenics.
Or the tech bubble bursts and we stop giving ourselves over to robots because of tech monoliths like Google being so eager to "innovate" and sell their latest technological gimmicks.

I don't think predicting the future could get any more accurate than that.

I recommend the movie: Ex Machina

One last comment to Squandered:

What's stopping you from making changes now? Why wait till the baby boomers are dead, which won't be for a long time. In the meantime, those born after the baby boomers are now in their 50s. Are you also going to wait for them to die off before making any changes? And someday YOUR generation will be blamed for everything that is wrong in the world.

Here are a few leaders in the tech world that were born AFTER the boomers. They have a lot of money and can influence politics:

1. Jeff Bezos - CEO of Amazon
2. Mark Zuckerberg - Founder and CEO of Facebook
3. Jack Dorsey - Founder of Twitter
4. Elon Musk - Tesla

To quote Mahatma Gandhi: "Be the change that you wish to see in the world."

In one article, we hear that no one wants to hire the baby-boomers and they're lobbying for special age-protections in the law, and suing employers when they get laid off or fired. Then in this one, we hear that they're so valuable that industry will grind to a halt after they shuffle of to retirement homes.

Which is it?

Hi,

I wrote the report and I want to respond to some of the comments.

The retirement wave is a workforce replacement challenge.

It is not now primarily about tech workers who are generally longer as a group.

It is about people in jobs like nurses, doctors, plumbers, public safety workers and thousands of others who will not or cannot work until they drop.

In our area only about 5% of residents over 75 work and not much higher for over 70. Many occupations are too strenuous for older workers.

Most of the people mentioned above will not be replaced by robots or work at home in the near future if ever. The actual evidence by the way on work at home in Palo Alto is about 5%.

Certainly with better transportation and more housing, some of those challenges can be met.

But the retirement wave is real.

Is the shortage of doctors due to those of retirement age retiring or because engineers make more than doctors? Doctors and lawyers used to be the top earners who could easily afford nice houses in Palo Alto but now the tech big wigs are the top earners. Why spend so many years (12) and $$$ studying medicine when it's much easier and quicker to earn an engineering degree.

If you don't want to loose the non-tech workforce, impose a rent control and stop allowing the big high-tech companies to take over. What do you expect when Palo Alto is surrounded by companies like Facebook and Google? How does anyone who does not make a salary in the high six figures stand a chance?

Article on rent control on sf chronicle:

Web Link

Baby Boomers need to retire to make room for those of us waiting to be promoted into higher paying jobs.

Has there been an issue in filling openings are various government entities and non-tech businesses? I've read in the past that whenever there is a recruitment for a firefighter, there are plenty of applicants. I haven't seen the City of Palo Alto have any problem with hiring Assistant City Managers, PR spokespersons, etc.

So the facts don't seem to support the talking points in this article.

@@Working till I Drop, Baby Boomers aren't likely to go anywhere given the the new tax plan that the GOP is now pushing through that penalizes high earning, high tax Blue states by cutting the amount deductible for property taxes to $10,000, by halving the amount of mortgage interest one can deduct from $1,000,000 to $500,000, by eliminating the deductions for state and local taxes which includes the cap gains/income tax paid on home sales, eliminating medical deductions etc etc. etc. -- all of which makes housing less affordable.

Maybe if you had more Baby Boomers with social consciences still employed at the Big 5 local tech companies, we wouldn't have had the Fake News problem that influenced this past presidential election and made all those tax changes possible,

@ @ Working till I drop,

I don't have a high-level job that anyone is waiting for. It's really difficult for people of my age and experience to land a job in the high-tech industry. Walk into most of the newer tech companies around here and you won't see a lot of older employees, and those companies aren't likely to higher older employees. I know several high level workers in tech who were laid off and replaced with younger workers. It happens all the time. I really don't think you have to worry about the baby boomers keeping you from getting work - - just the opposite. There will be a high demand for health care workers and assisted living facilities to care for the aging population. Think about it - the bulk of the boomers are now in their 70s and the youngest are in their mid 50s.

@online name: what makes you so sure that all the boomers around here own homes? I don't, and I'd say that at least 80% of the kids in my Paly graduating class, and many of their parents, have moved away because they can't afford to live here. The new high-tech folks, like Mark Zuckerberg (not a boomer), buy up several houses on their street to build their mega properties, but I guess the baby boomer bashers are okay with that. There are boomers who have lived here for a long time, but I don't think there are as many as you imagine, and there's no reason they shouldn't be able to stay in their homes.

I would love to glimpse about 30 years into the future when the younger folks bashing us boomers will be middle-aged and dominating the workforce. Facebook and Google, now full of young, "hipster" workers, will have an older workforce and feel the threat of loosing their jobs to younger workers. It's not as far away as you think, so be careful with your boomer bashing!

@Working till I drop, of course you're right that not all boomers own homes here. I've said good bye to too many boomer friends when they've gotten laid off and can't sustain the rents while the continue their long and often fruitless job search when they're replaced by younger, cheaper US employees and even younger and even cheaper Visa employees.

It's pretty sad when people have to worry they're too old at 35+. It's equally odd to think we're going to planning communities for those who'll be here for only 15 or so years (25-40 yrs old) before they too are forced out. That doesn't make for community stability.

I'm wondering how the new Comp Plan is going to account for the likely economic consequences of the GOP tax plan.

The so-called "Baby Boomers" have worked hard to bring the country back from a devastating World War II. Most of them worked (their whole lives) in regular jobs with regular salaries, not necessarily in technical jobs with extremely high paychecks, bringing up their families and contributing greatly to peace and wellness for everyone.

The Bay area, because of its enormous focus on high technology that rewards high salaries, is paying a steep price for this focus which has caused incredibly increased housing and rental prices, and is more than likely a prime reason for the high benefits of city employees, where this technical focus reigns.

What I am still amazed at, is that our transportation system has lagged terribly behind our Bay Area business expansion, causing many of the above problems. An excellent transportation system would allow workers and their families to live in excellent homes and communities a decent distance away from their jobs, balancing the overall housing market and its prices. It would also create much needed flexibility. For example, if the Hi-Tech business were to move away from the Bay area (remember Detroit), you can easily reduce transportation means versus reducing or continuing to occupy the homes that were built during high times.

Anneke - "The so-called "Baby Boomers" have worked hard to bring the country back from a devastating World War II."

Nah, b. None of us worked in the 40's and 50's, the WWII recovery period (unless the very first boomer "worked" as a 14 yr old newspaper delivery-boy in '59)

Boomers worked during the period of recovery from Vietnam, Johnson and Nixon. The Vietnam War was financed by higher tax rates and gross inflation. Of course the real spike in debt came in the 80's when you-know-who tripled the debt, from 900 billion to 2.7 trillion.

"Posted by Squandered, a resident of Community Center, on Nov 4, 2017 at 9:46 am"

"The baby boomers have taxed us mightily and squandered the money. Most recent example: our recently added gas tax."

It is the trucking industry which benefits from fuel taxes. Most road wear is caused by heavy trucks, while fuel taxes over-tax light vehicle owners. Where do "baby-boomers" come into it?

"You think it goes to fix roads? Well, not so fast - it doesn't actually allow any new road construction. So we are paying the gas tax (again - this is the third gas tax squandered) and it will not improve congestion at all. And it is heavily regressive on the poor, on commuters, i.e. the young workers."

It is heavily regressive on anyone not driving a heavy truck, but, the trucking industry is politically powerful. I'm not sure why "baby-boomers" are particularly to blame for it. But, I can tell you from personal experience that some new, smaller cars get around 50 mpg when driven carefully. Make a statement to the trucking industry and drive a fuel-efficient vehicle.


"Want to relieve housing stress? Build transportation out to areas with lower cost land."

Great idea. One single track of a multi-track commuter rail line (e.g. Long Island Railroad) can move over 40,000 passengers per hour. Compare that to a freeway lane.

"Frankly, the baby boomers can't kick the bucket soon enough, so that we can start to make the state work again."

Because baby boomers are responsible for all the world's ills? You might want to read a little more history. For US history, I suggest reading Ron Chernow's "Hamilton" and "Washington" to start.

What a surprise.

The report authored by global elitists promotes the need for MORE immigration and MORE housing because of a mass retirement.

They neglect to point out that their age descriminating layoff inducing spolicies of outsourcing and offshoring are the reason for that cohort being pushed from the labor force.

"In the past, the Silicon Valley workforce has been aided by migrants from abroad and from other parts of the country. "

In other words, we've set up our region to require continuous substantial population growth in order to function, and then, oops, we reach a ceiling where population growth causes problems, not solutions. Imagine that.

Today I (a baby boomer whose kids are no longer in PAUSD schools) spent my morning volunteering at Gunn High School. Interestingly, I was joined by a group of parents and one other boomer whose kids (like mine) are also out of school.

I'm enjoying working in my community as a volunteer. I still have lots to offer. Giving back feels good.

I love our community and my neighbors--young and old--and I plan to work to help keep our community strong.

Let's stop wringing our hands, roll up our sleeves like our dedicated founding fathers did, and work together to create an amazing place for us all. That's how America works. We are nation with a form of government that depends on citizen participation and volunteerism. Read your biographies on the founding fathers and on most of the great leaders of the last century, including people like Martin Luther King. In this country, if you want to change the world, your best course is to work together with other good people to make the change you want.

Kvetching on the internet does NOT count as positively, productively participating. Get off your computer and out into the community. Pick some volunteer work that is meaningful to you and get DEEPLY involved. Try to understand the problems that need to be solved and bring people together to solve them. This show we make a better world for ourselves, our children and grandchildren. BE part of the solution. Everything feels better when you are doing what you can to help.

Help for seniors & other demographics

Dear Baby Boomers and others,
We have a fantastic local nonprofit organization, Neighbors Helping Neighbors ( NHN). NHN serves mostly middle & lower upper income households. However, NHN's programs and services, there are no income restrictions.

NHN has a large Housing & Jobs Networks.

Here are some of the features, for the "private rental market" searches. It's FREE...

■ Relocation Packet - going prepared to view rentals gives you a one up on other applicants.
Blank Rental Application / Credit Report/ Proof of Income / Rental Resume

□ Relocation Supplies - Moving Boxes

■ Listings Alerts - Weekly rental listings for room rentals & or 1-2-3 Bedroom. Legitimate rentals.

■ Landlord Tenant Issues - Assistance w/letter writing, negotiations and more.

■ Roommate Matches - Based on personal & rental profiles, people are paired up with other renters for housing searches.

■ Rental Assistance/Application Fee Assistance/Utility Assistance - on a case by case basis applicants are considered for financial assistance with rent, 'first & last rent plus deposits. And financial assistance with paying application fees or utility bills.

■ Support of professional property management team.
NHN Housing Coordinator, Housing Consultants & Helpers - non paid volunteers help renters navigate housing search.

Those interested in seeking help with jobs and housing contact, NHN.HousingProgram@gmail.com or 650-283-0270.

@baby boomer perspective - when the gentrification of Palo Alto is more complete, perhaps the noise on Palo Alto online will die down. Or perhaps you will retrain to be a volunteer nurse because no nurses at current salaries can afford to live here, if they did not buy when you did. (I am assuming you are a home owner.) Meanwhile, as rents keep rising faster than our salaries, many of us curse our bad luck to have ever settled here. We enjoy an online break from planning our escapes. The trick is to find a job elsewhere where we can afford to buy. Also to get ready to say good bye to our friends and schools and other communities here. But the American dream is not about getting poorer and poorer every year. Mere survival is not about getting poorer every year. So our best choice is to flee. @baby boomer - have you rented a room at an affordable rate? Have you built a second unit to rent out? Either act could make a huge difference to someone who is already part of this community.

Never let a good crisis go to waste. If you don't have a good crisis, just make one up. Cultural Marxism 101.

@Working til I drop,
Your writings are as if I scripted them for you myself.
Similar age, same age discrimination and savings raped from my bank accounts by runaway rents that no city council no matter who we elect on them actually will do anything about. They refuse to incentivize the local companies to hire locally from the huge talented workforce already living here, instead pressuring the housing supply to burst with imported youngsters from other states and countries, despite you and I and are type doing better jobs and being more professional and loyal than these age discriminating hiring managers who refuse to hire people who could be their fathers. Of course they claim they're choosing the best qualified, but only after rejecting those who they call "overqualified" or "not a good fit", when they really mean too old or some irrelevant and illegal factor that has no bearing on how well we will do the job.
So, anyone want to hire a 25+ year experienced tech support/ IT/ Network-systems Admin type who will clearly be the best qualified and do a far superior job to 99% of the other applicants who you might find for your company's needs?
Will be glad to send you my resume. For now, Ive been told I'm overqualified for everything and overqualified for anything so much in the last three years that the only think I'm sure I qualify for now if foodstamps.
[Portion removed.]

Bo surprise here.

Every biological system grows recklessly until it exhausts its resources, then it dies. Pure capitalism closely mimics reckless biological systems. Silicon Valley is a cauldron of pure capitalism. Connect the dots.