Demogrpahically speaking, the Baby Boomer generation is just approaching retirement age. For that generation, there really isn't time for them to recover from something as big as this. The fallout from the upcoming swell of Boomers reaching retirement without enough money to support themselves because of the crash in investments and real estate is yet to be felt. If you think the stimulus is a lot of money to be throwing around, wait till the Boomers, as a big group, really start to need help.
I would tend to agree with you given the recent parameters of the economy. Most people lost around 40% of their retirement savings (in Canada its RRSPs and pension funds, you have the 401ks and stuff). Thus baby boomers have suddenly decided that they have to work more years to retire financially healthy. I personally worked it out that I can't retire earlier than 65 for the equivalent funds that I thought I could at 61. BBs are just beginning to retire right now but what will happen with other BBs delaying their retirement is that the switch from working to retired will happen over a shorter time period than previous expected. More people will retire in one big bunch!
This is going to have a really wacky affect on the employment figures and social structure of our society. This delayed retirement is also going to frustrate the Gen-X and Gen-Ys because they will want to move up the ladder and will find out that there is less room to go because the BBs are "blocking" their path. Statistically Canada has a higher number and % of BBs than the US does. In the short term this will resolve the current job shortages.
This delayed retirement will have further weird effects on the "unfunded liabilities" of our governements. Social Security for you and OAS for Canada.
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