The chart below outlines how we currently do not have enough people in our younger working population to support our older population as we continue to move forward.   The older population is looking for services, vacation travel, etc.; they have the assets, resources and income to do these things.  The younger population workers generally are not willing to work in the lower income jobs which are required in our service industries.  We continue to see large numbers of Help Wanted signs in the service areas, as well as significant numbers of temporary workers from outside the country.   We see large numbers of marginal employees in all sectors of the economy, because there are not enough workers in general. 

As we move forward, more of the people at the top of the chart retire; their demand on the tax system increases as they are entitled to both Social Security and Medicare.  Further, some 90% of their lifetime medical costs are incurred within the last ten years of their lives.

We can estimate the maximum shortage of people by drawing diagonal lines from the right and left sides of the pyramid (see above).  The deficiency in males vs. females can be estimated by age group and then added up, which produces something like 140 Million people as the shortage.  The real shortage is not as much, because of productivity and other factors, but the current deficiency is probably around 50% of the areas shown above (or 70 million people).
To deal with the current issues, substantial long and short term programs are required!   Without big programs, the housing surplus is long term and is directly followed by a surplus in business properties (as evidenced by current market values).  The economy languishes in recession, even dipping into depression.

United States Age Distribution Chart