David Brooks

The New York Times' David Brooks issues a rousing call to action for the encore generation in his column today.

Under the headline, "The Geezers' Crusade," Brooks calls for a social movement of older adults on behalf of younger people.

"Spontaneous social movements can make the unthinkable thinkable, and they can do it quickly, Brooks writes. "It now seems clear that the only way the U.S. is going to avoid an economic crisis is if the oldsters take it upon themselves to arise and force change."

Such changes are already afoot in the private sphere, Brooks says, citing research that "seniors who perform service for the young have more positive lives and better marriages than those who don’t." Studies of older adults helping children improve their reading through Experience Corps bear this out as well.

Other examples abound. Over the past four years, The Purpose Prize has received more than 4,000 nominations from people who are devoting the second half of their working lives to issues like education, youth development, the homeless, health care innovation, responding to disasters in places like Haiti or war-ravaged countries like Rwanda, creating a green economy and more.

Brooks is calling for public policy to institutionalize such "generativity" (providing for future generations). He cites reports from the Brookings Institution that the federal government spends $7 on the elderly for each $1 spent on children and notes that rising pension costs in many states are squeezing education spending. Rising deficits and taxes driven by mandatory spending on Medicare and Social Security mean less growth and fewer opportunities for future generations, he says.

Smart policy can forge an intergenerational alliance out of this apparent generational conflict. Support for encore careers that help the next generation succeed can improve the well-being of both groups. A mobilization of older adults to transform schools, as teachers, tutors and mentors, could reduce dropout rates and bolster science and math education. An army of encore "health navigators" holds promise to both improve health and reduce costs. All hands on deck - as contractors, managers and trainers - are required to retrofit our buildings for energy efficiency and speed the transition to a clean-energy economy and create good jobs for all ages.

Employers could follow the lead of IBM, which launched the Transition to Teaching program to help its senior engineers and technicians shift into math and science teaching, or Hewlett-Packard, which helped pilot the Encore Fellowship, enabling early retirees to launch second careers with youth or environmental organizations.

Community colleges are developing relatively quick, convenient and inexpensive ways for those who want to go back to school to become teachers or nurses or to work in the green-collar sector.

"It may seem unrealistic - to expect a generation to organize around the cause of nonselfishness," Brooks concludes. "But in the private sphere, you see it every day. Old people now have the time, the energy and, with the Internet, the tools to organize."

Let us know what you're doing to organize "the Generativity Revolution."