[.ca] Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize ... (ISBN 1586481207)

From Amazon.com:
Marc Freedman predicts that "a new kind of aging" will soon bring new life to America. In Prime Time, he writes that the baby boomers will turn their golden years into an intense time of social activism, volunteerism, and lifelong learning. In retirement, the Woodstock generation will still be trying to change the world. "The boomers will not accept the old notions of later life and retirement--they will refuse to remove themselves, go away or put up with being taken 'out of use or circulation'," writes Freedman, founder of the private, nonprofit Civic Ventures. However, to harness that energy for society's benefit, Freedman argues, government and business need to create programs that capitalize on baby boomers' love of learning and community service. The country also needs to wipe out ageism and other barriers. Prime Time highlights a handy list of initiatives that already tap retirees for such roles as foster grandparents and volunteers at free medical clinics. The book also profiles people who are now reaping the benefits of remaining socially productive. Freedman debunks the notion that old boomers will only be a burden on the nation's health care and Social Security systems. Instead, they will be the largest, best-educated, and healthiest group of retirees ever, he writes. Insightful and well written, Prime Time is for anyone concerned about the economic and social changes under way with the aging of the baby boomers. --Dan Ring

shocked and dismayed:
There are 3 books every older person should read and ponder. Marc Freedman's book Prime Time is one of them (The other titles are Another Country and Age-ing to Sage-ing). Like the other authors, Freedman has done his homework and presents a positive alternative to seniors on golf courses. His recounting of the evolution of our changing attitudes towards elders is worth the book alone. But more than anything else, he portrays a picture of engaged, older citizens who make a difference to their community. This is a far better picture than the one the media portrays of "greedy geezers" or "selfish bluehairs". Marc Freedman's call for investing in creating opportunities for senior citizen service is not only altruistic, it is essential if we are ever to weave together the fabric of our bickering populations. Those who gave a negative view of this book quite frankly shocked me. Sadly they promote a very selfish portrait of older Americans at a time when we can least afford it. (Or they simply are poor readers with a heavy, negative agenda) Buy this book, you will not be disappointed! It is easily worth 6 stars. I hope someday to meet Mr. Freedman and personally thank him for advocating for a meaningful role for older citizens.

Too depressing for me to finish:
I DO agree that the Del Webb history is fascinating. Also, the book is well written. BUT, I am a tired 53 year old lawyer. I have had one job or another since I was a teenager. I was an over-achieving student, so I worked very hard at school from first grade forward. (Graduated #1 from 8th grade; #3 from undergrad; #1 from law school - you get the pattern.) My family was dysfunctional (I know, whose wasn't?) and I was not given a chance to be a kid - I had to grow up fast, be serious, etc. etc. After decades of work of one sort or another, I am ready for R & R; for travel; for play. Indeed I LONG for it. I want to learn how to garden; learn Spanish; study art. I see my in-laws, who have been retired happily for a quarter of a century, enjoying life with gusto without feeling a need to work or volunteer at anything. Yet they are two of the most interesting people I know. This book's thesis was just exhausting and depressing. I became so irritated that I stopped reading it. ... If some people want to work for their whole lives, let them. Personally, having never had much of a chance to "play" as a child, I look forward to learning how to do it - and doing it well. If I can touch some lives positively along the way, terrific. Hopefully I will someday have grandchildren and will have the time and energy in retirement to love and spoil them, as well as to host family gatherings and give to people that way (as my in-laws do so lovingly). But I resist the message that, after having worked this hard, and paid plenty of SSA taxes to keep my elders financed in their retirement, that I have to forego my own.

Save your money:
Don't buy this one, check it out of the library and read Chapter 6, because it is the ONLY chapter that talks about what the title promises: How Baby Boomers WILL Revolutionize and Transform America. Most of the book is a dull recitation of facts about how some people in our parents' generation found meaning by becoming foster grandparents (holding dying babies mentoring pregnant teens, or working at the local McDonalds.) Sorry, but this is a depressing book that does not speak to me as a child-free adult who has spent her life working outside the home. There are a few interesting tidbits, such as how retirement communities such as Sun City were the genesis of racially segregated, gated communities where rich people pride themselves on avoiding taxes.

Inspiring Read:
Marc Freedman's book communicates a forward thinking idea that is the next step in social development. Similar to how childhood was reinvented as a valid life stage in the nineteenth century and adolescence in the twentieth century, the new life stage of older retired adults represents the potential for dramatic civic renewal in our time. Those who believe Marc Freedman is advocating for further work after retirement are sorely mistaken and have missed the basic founding premise for his book. He is by no means attempting to guilt trip retirees out of taking a deserved break and rejuvenating themselves with plenty of golf and travel. Marc Freedman points out that the key is to achieve a better balance of work across generations. Our society manages to skew work into a massive time commitment, monopolizing our entire lives for the span of our careers and leaving time for nothing else. People naturally become either absolutely addicted or repelled by the idea of further service. He emphasizes that most people do need to get an R & R fix after working hard for decades but that after a certain amount of relaxation, many older people testify to needing deeper purpose and something to commit to in their retired lives. This empty place in their lives may be best filled through meaningful civic service, perhaps in areas that they had never considered before like mentoring school children or by continuing their lifelong career paths such as the doctors at the Samaritan House Clinic. Freedman advocates for a revolution of society's attitudes towards older people in order to give them the option of remaining active and contributing to society or not. His heartening message of potential social renewal seeks to "expand opportunities and option, not obligations" and to show what a massive potential resource we have at hand. I found especially inspiring the idea of "the aging of America as an impending civic renaissance." The book itself is extremely well written, and even if you do not agree with its message, it is worth reading for the first person narratives of older Americans. These are very inspiring and interesting because many of the perspectives are ones that I would never have encountered otherwise and that give me a greater hopefulness for my own ability to continue to affect change in old age.

Compelling message, good read:
Marc Freedman's book communicates a forward thinking idea that is the next step in social development. Similar to how childhood was reinvented as a valid life stage in the nineteenth century and adolescence in the twentieth century, the new life stage of older retired adults represents the potential for dramatic civic renewal in our time. Those who believe Marc Freedman is advocating for further work after retirement are sorely mistaken and have missed the basic founding premise for his book. He is by no means attempting to guilt trip retirees out of taking a deserved break and rejuvenating themselves with plenty of golf and travel. Marc Freedman points out that the key is to achieve a better balance of work across generations. Our society manages to skew work into a massive time commitment, monopolizing our entire lives for the span of our careers and leaving time for nothing else. People naturally become either absolutely addicted or repelled by the idea of further service. He emphasizes that most people do need to get an R & R fix after working hard for decades but that after a certain amount of relaxation, many older people testify to needing deeper purpose and something to commit to in their retired lives. This empty place in their lives may be best filled through meaningful civic service, perhaps in areas that they had never considered before like mentoring school children or by continuing their lifelong career paths such as the doctors at the Samaritan House Clinic. Freedman advocates for a revolution of society's attitudes towards older people in order to give them the option of remaining active and contributing to society or not. His heartening message of potential social renewal seeks to "expand opportunities and option, not obligations" and to show what a massive potential resource we have at hand. I found especially inspiring the idea of "the aging of America as an impending civic renaissance." The book itself is extremely well written, and even if you do not agree with its message, it is worth reading for the first person narratives of older Americans. These are very inspiring and interesting because many of the perspectives are ones that I would never have encountered otherwise and that give me a greater hopefulness for my own ability to continue to affect change in old age.