March 24, 2008 - It was a back to work Monday. It was also a back to the gym Monday. Ellie and I went after work. But first, we met up at Casey and Jamie's house for their famous grilled cheese and tomato soup dinner. I went all in at the gym today, doing 495 pounds on the leg press. That maxes out the machine. Now I'm going to have to find another machine to max out. This might take a while, because I'm only about halfway up on the other machines. A report was released today on two things. The average selling price of homes across the country has dropped some 11% since last year. Also, the estimates of when Social Security and Medicare will...become bankrupt?, no longer be able to support itself?, not be able to pay out 100% of the promised benefits?, it's unclear what exactly they are projecting, but whatever it is, it's going to happen by 2040 for SS and 2017 for Medicare. I see these problems colliding and creating bigger problems. When we hit that point in the near future when all the baby boomers are beyond a working age, but they haven't saved enough for retirement, many are going to be doing reverse mortgages on their homes to help pay their bills. Or others will just outright sell their homes. But since the values are dropping, they're not going to get as much for their house as they would if the market kept creeping up. Then on the other side, SS and Medicare won't be paying the benefits they were expecting. This will cause a major cash crunch where we will either have people not being treated properly because they can't afford it, or my generation will have to dig deep into our maxed-out-credit pockets to try to find a way to take care of our parents. I don't see this ending well.