Jim Bacon (if you’re reading this and live in Virginia, you know who Jim Bacon is) sent me a copy of his Boomergeddon, maybe a year ago. I loaned it out two or three times before I read it myself, something I frequently do with new books, got it back, and read it a second time-both times smiling, nodding, thinking of my neighbor. (I’ll come back to him.)
First a word about the cover. No, four words: I hate the cover.
I have never in my life purchased a book with a photograph of an atomic mushroom cloud on the cover. I never see such a thing without thinking of Barry Goldwater and the iconic commercial that Lyndon Johnson ran against him in the 1964 election.
If you’re of a certain age-say, at least 57-58-you know this commercial-a kid, a little girl, is picking daisies, and a mushroom cloud rises in the distance behind her. I believe that commercial actually aired only once, though it has been re-broadcast a million times since.
The cover not withstanding, Boomergeddon should be required reading. Period.
This is not some policy Pooh-Bah’s slanted screed, although Bacon can hold his own on policy eight days a week, but rather a non-partisan, numbers-driven analysis of the goddamn mess we’re in, written in easy, rhythmic, anecdotal, pedestrian language that Jenks, my yellow lab, could follow.
The case Bacon makes is solid, prescient, and simultaneously calm, reserved, and alarming; we’re doing ourselves in.
Boomergeddon is a handbook on fiscal reality. Every member of the House and Senate, Democrat, Republican, and otherwise, should be made to read it before he or she ascends (descends?) to public office-especially Chapter 9 (Salvaging the Future).
I don’t know what the book costs-probably $15-$20-and I’m sure it’s available at most of the book sellers, but as a consumer, especially a Boomer Consumer, Chapter 8 (a less-is-more survival guide) is worth the money.
My neighbor could have written Chapter 8.
Air Force pilot. Long, successful career selling medical devices. Miserable for years. Retired now. Divorced. Living in ease and comfortable wealth. Happy as a clam.
What brought about the change?
He came home one Friday, after a long week on the road, and found the seeds of his discontent hiding in his kitchen cabinets-31 brands of cereal!
I give you here the BBB recommendation-Buy Bacon’s Book. BKD
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