Gosh, I was piqued by some of the discussion toward the end of class that intimated that other professors teach that elderly people are a drag on the economy.
So, while dinner is cooking I want to expound a little.
The elderly are not freeloaders. Most working people in our economy contribute to their retirement with every paycheck via a social security account. For those lucky enough to be earning a pension, additional amounts from their pay are contributed to a retirement account. These are not bonuses, but are deferred wages. So, when people receive their modest social security or pensions, they are receiving back money they earned. (For clarity, the only people who get money they are not earning are the very wealthy who take it from people who are working. And also undocumented workers pay into social security and other funds with no hope of ever collecting.)
Elderly people without sufficient income are still working for pay and healthcare into their 70s – you see them every day as grocery baggers, department store greeters, retail clerks…
The elderly are not idle. It was a funny truism that when a member of my senior exercise class would be wondrously happy at the prospect of being a grandparent, we others knew that we were seeing the last of them. Because as soon as the baby was born, boom!, our friend would disappear to be enmeshed in fulltime baby care.
But we don’t all do child care. A quick survey of what people like me are doing yields volunteer hours at food banks, animal shelters, gardens, teacher’s aides, hospital and hospice assistants, crossing guards, in-home healthcare givers, tax advisors. Many of us are in the streets and legislative meetings demanding graduated taxes, decent schools and healthcare and police accountability and an end to wars. We work hard to keep and extend the public services we know young and not-so-young people will continue to need.
Our society depends on the unpaid work of elderly just as it requires the unpaid work of women in the home.
One time I went with a group of retirees to talk with then-Boeing CEO Phil Condit. We were seeking cost-of-living increases for pensions. (Without that, the value of a pension decreases every year.) He had the temerity to tell us that our pensions were a drag on Boeing’s ability to compete with Airbus because European workers got old-age pensions from the state, rather than a company. He demurred about demanding such as system here. And he got an irate earful about all the wealth former workers had created for the company.
Uhoh, I smell peppers burning so I need to close, but I think you get my drift.