Verified Document

Aging And Politics One Definition Term Paper

Aging and Politics

One definition of politics is "the process for determining who gets what, when, and how." Of course, politics don't exist without people, and the average age of the people who populate the United States is changing. Due to the combination of the "baby boomer" generation approaching retirement and a significant increase in how long people live, older people are going to become a larger and larger segment of the U.S. population. From 1990 to 2000 the number of people from ages 45 to 54 increased from about 19 million to about 38 million. 38 million people is a large constituency, and the aging of America will continue for decades.

Older people in the U.S. have already discovered political clout as evidenced by organizations such as the "Gray Panthers" and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).

As people of retirement age make up more and more of the country's population, fewer people will be available to support those who no longer work. At some point, the burden on those still working to support those who have retired will become untenable. Solutions will have to be found, and those solutions will involve deciding who gets what, when, and how. This fiscal problem will require a forced distribution of wealth, something likely to upset most affected by it. Retirees will be outraged if they get less from Social Security than the generation before them did. Those still working won't be willing to contribute more to Social Security only to get less when they retire. The cost of health care has been spiraling upward for some years, and new and economical solutions will have to be found to meet the medical needs of the elderly.

Solutions may require raising the retirement age, encouraging the elderly to continue working, providing less in retirement benefits, or raising taxes. These fundamental political changes will be necessary and may increase the political activity of those affected.

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Aging Public Health Issues Everything in the
Words: 1639 Length: 5 Document Type: Term Paper

Aging Public Health Issues Everything in the world changes and does not remain the same forever. Human development is also full of different phases. The three major phases of human life is birth, adulthood and death. Among these three major phases, aging is the process that a person encounters after he crosses the boundaries of adulthood. One very important thing about aging is that it is very subjective is nature. It is contingent

Aging, Particularly the Discrimination Against the Elderly,
Words: 926 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Aging, particularly the discrimination against the elderly, is inextricably linked with the field of sociology because it affects the way in which humans behave. Moreover, it is an important social issue because societal attitudes toward aging inform the construction of social institutions. The plight of the elderly is often overlooked in favor of other underrepresented groups, but an analysis of media, politics, and other social constructs reveals that there the

Aging the Social Issue in Which I
Words: 996 Length: 3 Document Type: Research Paper

Aging The social issue in which I am interested is how the aging of society will affect the way that we view the elderly. The idea here is that population growth via the baby boom created a generation that had the economic means -- by virtue of the ratio of working age people to elderly -- to remain at a distance from the elderly. The textbook describes how this generation (and

Aging and Retirement Reference Brochure Baernholdt, M.,
Words: 870 Length: 3 Document Type: Research Paper

Aging and Retirement Reference Brochure Baernholdt, M., Hinton, I., Yan, G., Rose, K., & Mattos, M. (2012). Factors associated with quality of life in older adults in the United States. Quality of Life Research, 21(3), 527-534. doi: 10.2307/41445078 Black, B.S., Johnston, D., Morrison, A., Rabins, P.V., Lyketsos, C.G., & Samus, Q.M. (2012). Quality of life of community-residing persons with dementia based on self-rated and caregiver-rated measures. Quality of Life Research, 21(8), 1379-1389.

Aging and Advertising Image in
Words: 1244 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

As she points out, researcher Leonard Hayflick realizes the difference, and notes that ending aging and curing signs of aging are two very different issues. According to Hayflick, even if all causes of disease and signs of aging were cured, the human being could only extend life by 15 years or less. This is because, while signs of aging may be reduced by such products as Relastin Skin Revitalizerâ„¢,

Aging U.S. Culture Aging in
Words: 821 Length: 3 Document Type: Research Paper

Unfortunately, this largely casts those who have passed retirement age as having little economic relevance and, by consequence, as having little cultural or social relevance. Impact of Individual Differences: This suggests that the United States has a permeating cultural ageism. Ageism is a prejudicial mode of thinking that presumes the elderly have little value to offer those around them. This is a disposition that leads to the abhorrent conditions in which

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now