What Does Our Aging Population Mean For America?

Anne Carter

Americans are getting a lot better at not dying. That’s the theory, anyway (as we’ve covered, the obesity epidemic may counteract this idea!). In general, the average lifespan is a lot longer than it’s ever been - which means that, in a very short amount of time, an overwhelming proportion of the population will be over 65. Combine this with a declining birth rate, and you’ve got a situation in which an increasing proportion of elderly dependents is relying upon a decreasing pool of working-age individuals.

Sounds awful?

Well, not necessarily. A view which only ever considers the elderly as dependents is missing out an awful lot of the potential picture. Not to mention the fact that we’re pretty good innovators, able to ride the waves of demographic change with ease. Here’s a quick look at what an aging population may mean for America.

Americans are getting a lot better at not dying. That’s the theory, anyway (as we’ve covered, the obesity epidemic may counteract this idea!). In general, the average lifespan is a lot longer than it’s ever been - which means that, in a very short amount of time, an overwhelming proportion of the population will be over 65. Combine this with a declining birth rate, and you’ve got a situation in which an increasing proportion of elderly dependents is relying upon a decreasing pool of working-age individuals. Sounds awful? Well, not necessarily. A view which only ever considers the elderly as dependents is missing out an awful lot of the potential picture. Not to mention the fact that we’re pretty good innovators, able to ride the waves of demographic change with ease. Here’s a quick look at what an ageing population may mean for America.

Healthcare Changes

It’s perfectly possible to stay really quite healthy well into your old age. However, modern lifestyle habits indicate that this isn’t going to be the case with the up-and-coming senior generation. Older people in general tend to have more healthcare requirements than younger people, and the next generation of seniors are also more culturally inclined to seek out medical assistance than their predecessors. Furthermore, the needs of seniors are complex and varied, meaning that medical staff will not only have to have a broader and more comprehensive understanding of how to work with the elderly, we’re also likely to need more medical facilities in general. Access to healthcare could also be an issue - many politicians are murmuring about changes to the health cover system in order to protect seniors, but this could in turn alter our entire healthcare economy. Certainly the ageing population will provide interesting new challenges for American healthcare - but nothing which we cannot deal with, given the right amount of preparation!

Economic Issues

The worst-case scenario often rolled out by those worried about our upcoming demographic ‘time bomb’ involves a narrow wedge of working-age people sweating around the clock to provide for the needs of an enormous burden of dependent seniors. Taxes, the theory runs, will have to be raised if the declining working-age demographic is to provide for the public pensions of our billions of retired citizens. However, this need not necessarily be the case. For a start, seniors have a lot to offer - both societally and economically. While raising the retirement age for public pensions (thereby forcing seniors to work until late old age) is unpopular and arguably immoral, many seniors are perfectly happy to and capable of contributing to the economy for far longer than we give them credit for. What is more, seniors in general tend to be a lot better off than those younger than them these days. Seniors own property, have savings, and have built up equity. They’re far more capable as a demographic of supporting themselves financially than we give them credit for. Indeed, the ‘gray dollar’ has an enviable purchasing power which many economic sources believe could actually give the economy a considerable boost.

Social Issues

If the elderly are to become one of our more prominent demographics, we will almost certainly have to change the way in which we think about them. Time to throw out all of those ‘old and frail’ stereotypes, and to start embracing the positive wealth of opportunity and experience which our seniors have to offer. It’s worth noting that older people have (rather obviously) lived longer than younger people. While this sometimes means that they get stuck in their ways and addicted to an obsolete mindset, it also means that they’ve seen a lot, learned a lot, and acquired a fantastic amount of experience. With improvements in healthcare and senior-based services advancing all the time, it looks like they’ll be able to access and share this experience with us all for years to come. And hey - being tempered by experience does not mean that seniors cannot innovate. They can! It just means that they’re likely to have a better idea of the end result of their innovations than those leaping in with the blind enthusiasm of youth. All in all, the increase in our senior population could well mean a net increase in knowledge and experience which will benefit the nation as a whole.

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