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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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 ANALYSIS 
7

Baby Boomers Will Start Next Biz Craze

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(Newser) – The baby boomers may be pushing 60, but they're primed to lead another "entrepreneurship boom" in America, Dane Stangler writes in the American. After all, according to one study, it's the close-to-retirement-age crowd—not 20-something whippersnappers—that has led US entrepreneurial activity since it last picked up in the mid-1990s.

With technology-driven businesses cheaper to run, and people either job-hopping or out of work, it's time for America's gray-hairs to save us from this recession. "Even if business formation rates fell within this age group," Stangler writes, "we would still have tens of thousands of potential mentors to the next generation of entrepreneurs." But with Americans living longer and healthier, boomers will likely lead the way.

An entrepreneurship seminar.
An entrepreneurship seminar.   (AP Photo)
An older man looks for a job at the One Stop Center in Garden Grove, Calif.
An older man looks for a job at the One Stop Center in Garden Grove, Calif.   (AP Photo)
Baby Boomers, though pushing 60, are prime candidates to lead America's next startup boom and perhaps pull the country out of recession.
Baby Boomers, though pushing 60, are prime candidates to lead America's next startup boom and perhaps pull the country out of recession.   (Shutterstock)
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A steady increase in life expectancy also means that Americans are not only living longer but also living healthier longer, suggesting that those entrepreneurial 60-year-olds could be entrepreneurial 70-year-olds in the 2020s. - Dane Stangler

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7 comments
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Timinator2K
Jun 20, 09 5:11 PM CDT
Don't count on it. Oblahblah HATES capitalism and business and is working hard to kill it before it can start and grow again. Reply
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TerrifiedCitizen
Jun 20, 09 6:19 PM CDT
With the administrations help, Baby Boomers are becoming the next national pariah. Seems the legislators are only too happy to divert attention away from the body who illegally appropriated and spent most of the SS fund that was put into their hands with the written (originally) and expressed trust of the same workers that gave them the tax money which was supposed to fund their inflated and fiscally irresponsible spending. Seems the "Baby Boomer" is getting a bad name for putting its trust in government. Reply
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doingtherightthing
Jun 20, 09 6:43 PM CDT
underlying story here is he's half right and half wrong. If they organize the baby boomers they'll become more important to capitalism by working for themselves than working for Obama. They know there status in this life. The downside is a younger bunch of know-it-alls coming out of college will act as though its a god given right to get something for nothing. They'll move back home and sponge off of there parents because the govenment spends it does not create jobs (ask the GM workers; get it). Then the government steps in and says we need more money to spend on progrms that we don't care about. The me me know-it-alls then become entrenched more as stay home moms and dads. A vicious cycle here of those who know and those who think they know-it-all......the younger generation doesn't know how to actually work. Handouts yes, work no! We're in trouble! Reply
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-2
kokuaguy
Jun 20, 09 9:51 PM CDT
One last chance to redeem ourselves ... what did we (not ) do to deserve this? Reply
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+2
inky
Jun 21, 09 12:39 AM CDT
How about we all figure out a way to be useful and make a living? Kind of like our parents, and our parents' parents? Reply
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+2

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