There is some debate going on as to the preferred title for people around my age. Over the years, labels like golden ager, retiree, elderly and geriatric have been considered appropriate at various times.

Then, of course, there are the NSFW terms if one happens to work at an assisted-living home such as old fogey, over the hill and worse for wear tags.

Most recently, it appears that “senior citizen” has been abbreviated to just senior, with “older adult” lurking on the horizon as the future favored choice.

While reading last week’s Time Magazine, I came across a term that I was unfamiliar with: “super-aged.” At first it hit me like a thunderbolt — OK, perhaps not like a thunderbolt at my age, maybe more like an incandescent light bulb — that this was it! This is the invigorating label that I want.

But after reading the entire article and discovering that “super-aged” does not refer to older adults being “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound,” my enthusiasm waned.

Super-aged simply means that 20 percent of a city’s, state’s or country’s population is 65 or older. That’s it. Nothing very cool about that if you ask me.

The article points out that Maine, New Hampshire and West Virginia are already “super-aged.” Believe it or not, the entire U.S. will be super-aged by 2028. But the most shocking statistic is that by 2034 older adults will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history!

While this may be good news for folks who run bingo parlors or sell hearing aides or do both in the same location (“Eh? Was that B3 or G53?”), overall, it is bad news for the economy, according to experts.

As the population ages, theoretically there could be fewer working people to create economic growth. And that means less money to support the growing super-aged population. It’s a vicious circle.

This trend will also lead to a decline in household savings which is already a problem since 31 percent of U.S. adults say they have no savings or pension to help them afford retirement, according to the Federal Reserve Board.

One obvious solution proposed is to increase immigration. But politically, you know how that idea is going to fizzle.

Like it or not, folks 65 and older are just going to have to keep working. It’s even feasible that the very concept of “retirement” will disappear in our culture.

When searching for a prototype of such a situation, one need look no further than the current members of U.S. Congress. Let’s consider the Senate, which is not just “super-aged” but more like “mega-aged.”

Fifty of the 100 current senators are 65 or older, including five who are over 80. And the scariest aspect of this is that 18 senators are older than me! Now, I realize that I tend to overuse exclamation points, but in this instance I truly feel that one is warranted.

To take this point a step further, look ahead to the 2024 presidential election if you dare. This is rather intriguing since the proposed leading candidates fit the projected demographic of the country perfectly.

When the next U.S. presidential election takes place on Nov. 5, 2024, incumbent president Joe Biden will be 81 years old and be just 15 days away from turning 82. His predicted challenger Donald J. Trump will be 77.

If both men make it to election day, it will be the first time in history where both candidates are above the national average life expectancy which is 75.6 for a healthy male once he reaches the age of 60 in the United States.

Whew! I’m ready for a nap from just calculating such mind-boggling big numbers.

Anyway, all of us 65 and older folks are most likely not planning on running for president anytime soon so we need to look elsewhere for more feasible job opportunities since we may not be able to afford retirement.

The trucking industry is reporting a shortage of 80,000 drivers, probably due to so many truckers driving around the country protesting mandates that may or may not exist. That’s good news since there is no maximum age limit for commercial drivers.

But pedestrians beware. The world’s oldest truck driver is 93 and has just renewed his truck driving license.

Seems like fast food restaurants are always hiring. However, filling customers’ orders at the drive-thru window would not work out for me since vehicles would be backed up for blocks as I lecture each young customer on how we didn’t have hamburgers as kids. We had to eat mom’s homemade goulash every night for dinner and were darn glad to get it.

There is clearly much uncertainty regarding the future when it comes to the country’s rapidly aging population. But looking ahead to 2028 when the entire U.S. population is super-aged, there is one thing we can all be certain of — Tom Brady will still be playing quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Mike Murphy of Pocatello is an award-winning columnist whose articles are syndicated by Senior Wire. He published a book titled “Tortoise Crossing – Expect Long Delays,” which is a collection of 100 of his favorite columns. It is available on Amazon.com.