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Baby Boomers: Market Busters?

The first batch of baby boomers hit Social Security age in 2008. So what happens as this giant generation - 78 million strong - quits and starts selling assets they've saved for retirement?

By David Futrelle, Money Magazine
Score so far: points
3. In the Social Security system, current workers finance current benefits. In 1950, there were eight people of working age (15 to 64) for every person 65 and older. Owing to declining fertility rates and our tendency to live longer, now it's 5 to 1. If demographic trends hold, what will the ratio be in 2050?

Answer: (b) Three to one
Our increasingly skewed "dependency ratio" will put increasing pressure on Social Security and Medicare and likely lead to benefits changes. But some economists point to immigration as a partial fix: While the American population grows older, developing nations are overflowing with young people, many of them well educated and eager to work here.

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