HUFFINGTON
07.15.12
TWILIGHT IN THE SUNSHINE STATE
number of adults over 62 in the
U.S. will double to 80 million, as
the largest generation in American history retires. A demographic
model that once looked like a pyramid, with a relatively small number of seniors with lots of younger
people to support them, now more
closely resembles a bobble-head
doll. Right now in the U.S., four
working age adults support each
retiree. In 20 years, that ratio will
slip to three to one nationally —
and two to one in Florida.
This imbalance will create
a shortage of the high-skilled
workers needed to service the
needs of the senior population,
and drive up inflation, says Amy
Baker, director of the Florida legislature’s Office of Economic &
Demographic Research. A recent
report by her office predicts that
the surging senior population will
strain the economy, cool growth,
widen budget gaps and make government services more costly to
provide — even as the aging seniors become increasingly reliant
on those services.
Florida is also a pivotal swing
state in an election year, and it’s
grappling with some of the same
issues that consume the federal
government in Washington: the
proper scope of public policy, revenue and spending, and deciding
who should pay for public services
and crumbling infrastructure.
Aside from Nevada, no other
state was as devastated by the
housing crash as Florida. Sales
taxes, the prime revenue stream
for the state’s government, is
down nearly 20 percent from
their peak; Florida is now so desperate for cash that one lawmaker proposed selling advertising
space on the side of school buses.
“THIS IS A POTENTIAL
POLITICAL DISASTER.”
Yet after years of stagnant population growth, Florida is adding
new residents again, especially
in those areas where it is growing gray. According to projections
from Florida’s Office of Economic
and Demographic Research, more
than half of the five million migrants expected to flow into the
state over the next 18 years will
be 60 or older. This elderly population boom, fueled by the retirement of the Baby Boomers, the
biggest generation in U.S. history,
will profoundly change the face of
Florida from a state that is simply
very old, to a state with one of the
oldest populations on the planet.
If it seems like there are a lot