The Graying of America

In conclusion, elderly Americans face many obstacles as they grow in age, such as ageism, workforce discrimination, poverty,

1.) What difficulties—from retiring baby boomers in the United States to a graying China, to the massive overhang of Europe’s elderly—can private corporations, governments, and other sectors expect as the aging revolution unfolds across the globe? How will changing demographics affect workforce composition? Retirement age? Pension outlays? Taxation? Immigration? Economic growth? How can governments, corporations, and nongovernmental organizations work together to address these issues?

In America, people are changing their views on aging and the elderly. Some of the reasons that the attitudes are changing could be due to more elderly people are remaining in the work place longer, as opposed to retiring early. Riffkin (2014). And there is the fact that we baby boomers are living longer. Even though the U.S. only ranks 53rd with a life expectancy of 79. That’s an increase of one year since 2010. (“The World: Life Expectancy” 2016)

In general, countries experiencing high fertility and rapid population growth, have a “young” population structure and the important policy considerations are if there are enough schools and, sufficient jobs and housing to accommodate this population. Countries with “old” population structures face the problems of structuring and developing retirement and health systems to serve this older population and also they have a considerable reduction the number of the working force. The decline of the work force is one of the most dramatic economic tendencies of the past four decades in the United States. The individual’s decision of whether to stay in the workforce or to retire is based on the collaboration of a number of factors including the following: eligibility for Social Security benefits, availability of and benefits under an employer-financed pension plan, work

The people from the baby boomer generation are all nearing, if not already in, retirement and old age. Over the next 20 years the amount of elderly people of retirement age is supposed to increase somewhere around 50%. Because of this imbalance there will be a lot of money being directed toward taking care of the baby boomer generation which may lead to decreased funding for younger generations. The baby boomers will all retire around the same time, leaving jobs unfilled. There may also be troubles in the housing market as there may not be enough young people to buy all the houses they sell. The number of immigrants in America are increasing and replacing the baby boomers in being the dominating group in our population.

The issues affecting he baby boomer generation is the possibility of lack of funds for them takes care of themselves. The amount of baby boomers is also a concern, because there are so many people turning 65 at the same time that mean they will also be eligible for Medicare at the same time.

largest generation. Due to its large size, the Baby Boom generation has had a significant impact on society, business, and the economy. The impact of the generation has been felt in all areas of consumer spending, from increased sales of baby products when they were young; to rising demand for houses as they set up their own households; to growth in retirement savings vehicles as they prepare for

Jacobsen, Kent, Lee, & Mather (2011) stated, “Since women live longer than men in the United States, women will continue to make up a majority of the older population in the foreseeable future” (pg. 3). Whereas, this age distribution among men and women are expected to remain approximately the same between 2009 and 2030, there will be notable changes in the age and gender gap by 2050 as the gap grows smaller (Jacobsen, Kent, Lee, & Mather, 2011). Furthermore, according to Vincent & Velkoff (2010), by the year 2042 the United States will become more racially and ethnically diverse with the combined minority population expected to become the majority. Thus, as people in the United States age over the next several decades, the older population will also become a more racially and ethnically diverse group. In addition, the overall age structure of the population is expected to change a great deal over the next four decades (Vincent & Velkoff, 2010). This will pose even more challenges to policy makers and programs designed to help the elderly like Medicare and Social Security. Therefore, being able to project the size and structure of the older population, in regards to age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin is not only important to public interest, but also private both socially and economically (Vincent & Velkoff, 2010).

One of the biggest issues that will be affected is Social Security benefits and medical care for everyone. Today twelve percent of the total population is age 65older; by 2080 it will be up to 23%. However at the same time the working-age is shrinking every year, right now the working-age it is 60% and it is believed to drop to 45% by 2080. Social Security is experiencing low work-to-beneficiary ratio which will fall from 3.3 percent in 2005 to two percent in 2040. That is the year that is believed to be when the Social Security trust fund will have been exhausted. Due to this there will be significant challenges that policymakers and all future Americans. Because of that policymakers are now encouraging many to delay retirement and some people are even suggesting that retirement benefits be lowered the main reason for the suggestion is people are living longer than they used to.

This effect may last for generations past the baby boomers, as social security benefits rely on taxes, and the large amount of baby boomers have more ability than anyone to deplete these resources for future generations. Improvements in medicine will surely increase how long the average person lives, and it will take an increasing amount of money to anticipate these changes. At the same time, the older a person lives, the more risk they are to needing assistance from other publicly funded services such as caretakers, and also to provide them with the medicine they need to get by.

The two types of legislation that may or may not affect the aging population in the United States are; The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 respectively. Population aging may affect financial markets if individuals tend to amass assets during their working years and spend them during retirement. When there is a large cohort such as the baby boom, there may be more demand than usual for corporate stock and other assets while the cohort saves for retirement. This demand for corporate stock and other assets may abate after the cohort retires. (tonihansberry, 2012)

The retirement tack boomers end up taking in coming decades will have a profound, but unknown impact on the economy. As Peterson says, “The forecasts range from impending doom to marketplace godsend.” Some predict that as baby boomers retire unemployment will fall and that this process should begin by the year 2002 and that labor shortages should emerge about 2005. This will continue to get worse as the number of people who retire exceed the number who enter the workforce (Generation).

Social Security was introduced into law by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Social Security was a program which would provide financial protection to our most elderly of citizens. The program over the course of time has evolved and added new branches of protection such as child, survivor, and dependent benefits. Social Security was never created to be an answer for a comprehensive retirement package for people retiring. However in our current society with plastic cards and increasing debit to income limits, many people do not save for the future. Many citizens live for today and expect the government to take care of them when they are old and cannot fend for themselves. In 2011 the first wave of baby boomers began reaching retirement age and in turn qualifies them to begin drawing from the Social Security System. The baby boom generation makes up 25 percent of the total United States population (SSA, 2014). The projected number of people from 2011 to 2030 who will become eligible to receive Old-Age benefits from the Social Security Act will increase by 65 percent (SSA, 2014). This data is crucial in terms of determining the stability of a system that relies on the paying masses to care for the elderly few. Many Presidents in the last two decades have created and formed elaborate panels of specialized individuals to tackle the problem of the long term sustainability of the Social Security System. In order to take care of our most elderly

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Baby boomers, people born between the years 1946 to 1964, in United States alone there was an increase in population by 78 million during this period. (United States Census Bureau). Then, they were the baby boomers and now they are known as a