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| Prime Time: How Baby-Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 13 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1079950
Category: Book
Author: Marc Freedman
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Studio: PublicAffairs
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
Label: PublicAffairs
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 292
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 1891620177
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.38
EAN: 9781891620171
ASIN: 1891620177
Publication Date: January 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
With an original analysis of the impact of the aging of America, Marc Freedman describes hidden opportunities as we consider how to motivate the experience, talent and civic potential of adults who dont want to grow old passively.. Over the next three decades the number of Americans over 56 will double and American life expectancy will increase more than all of the previous gains of the past 5,000 years. The end result is a new stage of life, one as long or longer in duration than childhood or middle age and one spent in unprecedented good health. Yet, as individuals, and as a society, weve shown little imagination or wisdom in determining how to use this gift of a third age.Mark Freedman identifies it not so much as a problem to be solved, but as an opportunity to be seizedprovided we can learn to engage the experience, talent, and civic potential of older adults. At a juncture when t he middle-generation is in the midst of a time-famine struggling to simultaneously raise kids and work long hours on the job, the older generation is awash in free time, poised to succeed women as the trustees of civic life in this country, and abandon the state of limbo unfulfilling for most older Americans. Freedman argues that the phenomenon many portray as our downfall may in fact be our best hope for renewal.
Amazon.com Review
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Just the message we need November 28, 2005
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
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.
It's about time! November 26, 2005
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
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.
Gold watch = golden opportunity November 21, 2005
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
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.
Inspiring Read June 18, 2003
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
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 June 13, 2003
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
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.
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