At the beginning of the twentieth century, the average American lifespan was 46 years; now it is 77 years. A 1928 government study forecast that the "natural" lifespan would ultimately rise to the unbelievable level of 65 years. When Social Security was enacted, this estimate was used as the basis for setting the federal retirement age at 65. Lawmakers assumed Social Security would be economical because most people would die without ever receiving a benefit check. Instead, today Americans average an extra decade of life beyond what experts thought would be the biological maximum. ("Environmental Reality: A Tidbit," 2003, p. 46)
There is a clear sense that the demographic of representation is also aging, as there are significantly older members of congress and court in seat today than has been the case in the past and this may also shift the trend toward bolstering some of the social services that have been traditionally lacking in recent years, yet it is unlikely that the privatization trend will be countered any time soon, in any comprehensive manner.
Many people consider social services for he elderly to be a ticking time bomb that is being ignored by the short-term governmental policy thinkers. Long-term trends of aging have not been met by rapid response to the changing needs of society. It is also likely that the government will learn from the Medicare D. plan, and its concerns as it fine-tunes the existing policy and hopefully demonstrates more critical concern for implementation on the part of providers in the future. Yet, this remains to be seen. In the future there will need to be a serious reckoning of sorts to answer the call of limited private social support networks, as those with fewer or no children age and the community cannot keep up with their needs. Expansion of private and public services needs to be addressed, and the institutionalization of information age technology is essential to access. The divide is clearly evident as many more elderly people do not utilize the same avenues of access as those that younger people do, i.e. The internet and this is a serious problem as many systems change over to electronic service and information access, almost exclusively. (Segelken, 2007, p. 18)
References
Boomers Slow Down, but Won't Quit; Active Hobbies Part-Time Work, Volunteering to Fill Retirement Years. (2005, December 27). The Washington Times, p. A01.
Environmental Reality: A Tidbit from a Bradley Lecture at the American Enterprise Institute, in Which Gregg Easterbrook Previewed His Forthcoming Book the Progress Paradox. (2003, July/August). The American Enterprise, 14, 46.
Lamm, R.D., & Blank, R.H. (2005, July/August). The Challenge of an Aging Society: The Future of U.S. Health Care Must Involve Some Form of Rationing, Argue a Former Governor and a Medical-Policy Scholar. The Problem Is Not Simply How to Control Costs, but How to Achieve Social Justice. The Futurist, 39, 23.
O'Higgins, K. (1990). 9 KINSHIP and AGING in IRELAND. In Aiding and Aging: The Coming Crisis in Support for the Elderly by Kin and State (pp. 182-184). New York: Greenwood Press.
Purcell, P.J. (2000). Older Workers: Employment and Retirement Trends. Monthly Labor Review, 123(10), 19.
Espenshade, T.J., & Braun, R.E. (1983). 3 Economic Aspects of an Aging Population and the Material Well-Being of Older Persons. In Aging in Society: Selected Reviews of Recent Research, Riley, M.W., Hess, B.B., & Bond, K. (Eds.) (pp. 25-52). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Riley, M.W., Hess, B.B., & Bond, K. (Eds.). (1983). Aging in Society: Selected Reviews of Recent Research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Segelken, J.B. (2007). Professor's Analysis Unravels Mysteries of Medicare Drug Plans for Seniors: For the 70% of Older People Who Are Not Able to Use the Medicare Web Site to Compare the 59 Part D Options, Kosali Simon Has Created Easy-to-Use Printed Materials to Help Medicare Participants Choose among the Myriad Plans Offered. Human Ecology, 35(1), 18.
Siems, T.F. (2004). 1 Reengineering Social Security for the 21st Century. In Social Security and Its Discontents: Perspectives on Choice, Tanner, M.D. (Ed.) (pp. 13-32). Washington, DC: Cato Institute.
Taeuber, C.M. (1993, September). Women in Our Aging Society: Golden Years or Increased Dependency?. USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), 122, 42.
Ulrich, C. (2002). When You're 65: Medicare Managed Care Is an Attractive Option for Elderly and Disabled Americans, but it May Not Survive without Reform. Policy Analyst John Cawley Proposes a Way to Make it Work More Efficiently and Fairly. Human Ecology, 30(3),…
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