Customer Reviews

Prime Time: How Baby-Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

Freedman is a refreshing voice who puts a welcome human face on the aging of our society--a topic most often dealt with through dire statistical predictions and paranoia. Prime Time illustrates that, while the demographic revolution is real, a negative whammy on America doesn't have to be the result. The profiles of everyday heroes reveal the classic American values of ingenuity and social concern applied through a new generation of retirement-age people. The perspective on the formation of the notion of "golden years" is informative. The succinct reporting of the prevailing social value attached to older Americans from the Puritan era (revered sources of wisdom) to more recent decades (keepers of leisure time) is important. And the telling of the selling of Sun City is a hoot--an "only in America" tale that provides lots of context for understanding society's ambivalence and confusion in dealing with the opportunity and challenges inherent in an aging population. This is a good book for anyone interested in new visions for an older country.

The aging of America is upon us. Boomers will start turning 60 on January 1, 2006.

To read the papers, you would think that this event is going to be the start of a long gray sunset in which older adults suck the money out of the federal treasury and life out of our communities. Freedman's lively book suggests a different and much more optimistic view in which people who have finished their midlife careers can make great new contributions.

We have plenty of problems that need solving in our communities and in our country. Freedman shows us how older adults might play a huge role in meeting those challenges, and at the same time have an enriching experience in doing so.

A must read for anyone who is interested in what our society will look like over the next few decades.

I hope Freedman is right, and that we are on the brink of a major shift in how seniors utilize their time. Early retirement to the golf course is attractive to many after a long time in the workplace, and golf deserves its reputation as one of the most challenging games ever invented. But in the end, it's still just a game. Should grown men and women spend the final 20-40 years of their lives playing games? Prime Time offers a wide range of examples of seniors who are taking another, more fulfilling path. They are giving back to their communities in various ways, from working in hospitals as Foster Grandparents, to working in schools as members of the new Experience Corps, to founding and operating health clinics. They are trading a later life of leisure for a later life of impact, and end up happier and healthier in the bargain.

Marc Freedman hits the nail on the head in this book: the coming wave of retiring boomers represents an asset unlike any other, with the potential to transform the American economic and social landscape in ways we have yet to even consider. In the same way this generation revolutionized youth, politics, civil rights, women at work, childrearing, and every other issue with which it came in contact, so too will boomers revolutionize what America thinks about in terms of retirement. Freedman rightly notes that if their energy can be harnessed and directed to solving the country's social ills, the boomers stand poised to accomplish what no one else could.

As a young person with high hopes for the country's future, Freedman's book is a breath of fresh air. What makes America unique is its unprecedented potential for good, and nowhere has that potential been more clear than in the dynamic, thriving force of the boomer generation. Freedman's book captures that notion in compelling prose. A must-read for anyone looking for innovative solutions to society's real problems.

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.

Marc Freedman has compellingly described one of America's major challenges of the 21st Century -how to reorder our thinking about aging and how to restructure our institutions and ways so as to enable us to lead fulfilling lives, enriching both our communities and ourselves. His scholarly research and fascinating personal stories lead the reader to embrace his important conclusions.

Marc Freedman helps the reader understand the alternatives to a retirement that provides little stimulation or pleasure. The book presents a wonderful picture of how to contribute and the benefits to the person contributing as well as what the contribution can mean to society. Given the far longer time people will be spending in retirement, it is a wonderful guide to the third age, which can clearly be a golden age.

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.