Aging in America, A Needless Waste of Human Capital

 

By Charles .M.King

For the last sixty-nine years we have held and nurtured a belief here in America that has a strangle hold on our way of life. It is a strangle hold that is defeating and debilitating. I predict we cannot survive with it much longer. The difficulty in changing it is the same as with any other cultural change. Old habits and traditions die hard. America cannot afford to maintain it because it is destructive to a rapidly growing segment of our population.

I am referring to the way we view aging. We virtually push those people aside who reach age sixty and beyond. Actually our culture is predicated on the fact that they will not have much to offer beyond that age, so they are systematically phased out of the mainstream and are subsequently viewed as a liability rather than the asset they have the potential of being.

Most of the nation’s concern is not for their potential but rather how to offer services that will provide them a meager existence in their “declining years.” The greatest tragedy in all of this is that we prepare our citizens for their impending uselessness in old age from grade school onward. It is no wonder that most are worn out and expect little from themselves after sixty five or so. We become what we think about. Most Americans think about aging with trepidation.

What is the origin of this tragic way of life? Why do we have a mindset that causes such a waste of human capital? It began in 1935 following the Social Security Board’s recommendations for a security package to offer a level of security to certain people as they grew older. President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the “Old Age Pension Bill”, as it was originally named.

It is unfortunate that the phrase old age pension was attached to the Social Security Act of 1935. It has had a negative effect on our culture ever since. Many think the bill was passed because older persons would not be useful at age sixty-five. This was not the case. The real reason for the Social Security Act was given by President Roosevelt when he introduced the bill. He said: “Security was attained in the earlier days through the interdependence of members of families upon each other and of the families within a small community upon each other. The complexities of great communities and of organized industry make less real these simple means of security. Therefore, we are compelled to employ the active interest of the Nation as a whole through government in order to encourage a greater security for each individual who comprise it . . . This seeking for a greater measure of welfare and happiness does not indicate a change in values. It is rather a return to values lost in the course of our economic development and expansion.”

 When the Act was conceived it was referred to as an economic security plan to ultimately cover many different needs. It was conceived out of the need to meet the many changes that were taking place in American life at the time. By no means was it based on aging alone. Several parts of the Act deal with groups of people with troubles that were recognized for many years preceding its passage. Its provisions were for citizens considered too young to work, those who might be too old to work, and those who were physically handicapped. The Act also provides for grants-in-aid to help states broaden and extend regular allowances for certain mothers who needed assistance: the needy blind and the needy aged, for child welfare and the physically handicapped who can be assisted in working again. Unfortunately we have emphasized the aging part of the bill as a governmental decree that once citizens reach age sixty five, they would no longer be a productive member of society.

 It should be noted that in the year 1935 life expectancy for men was 59 years and 62.5 years for women. Compared to life expectancy, especially for men, age 65 was six years beyond their expected life span. Because our many advances in medical science and other technologies we are now able to provide for a significantly high quality of life with abilities far beyond what was possible in 1935. In fact, because of the many advances and discoveries today, life expectancy is rapidly approaching age 80 with the quality being far above what it was in 1935. Considering these factors we should clearly see that whatever the concept of aging was at that time should have no bearing on our thinking today. We should, and indeed we must, advance to the emerging realities and possibilities for life as it exists today.

 There are a number of reasons for changing our attitudes toward aging. To make my point regarding wasted human capital I will mention a few.

First, there are millions of elderly Americans who have tremendous experience, skills and abilities and are competent to use them in meaningful ways to the benefit of an employer. They see no need to sacrifice the lifestyles to which they have become accustomed because of the aging myth. Employers, and, potential clients for the self-employed, should be aware that to refuse to hire or retain these citizens are practicing age discrimination.

 The special lists of employers who are willing to provide low level and menial jobs for the elderly are appreciated but there are many elderly who are able to function normally in significant positions. These persons can bring much value to the workplace and I predict they won’t give up. Roger Herman, the international futurist and employee retention expert, now deceased, stated that there is a crisis developing in the workplace. He said there won’t be sufficient personnel to fill critical positions in organizations. What better reason to change our thinking about aging? There are more than enough people sixty and above to fill key positions.

Second, as more and more citizens discover their purpose in life and set out to function within it, they will not be tired of performing it at a certain age. It must be remembered that fulfilling a purpose makes a person resolute. Because they are driven, not much can stop them. Discriminating employers should beware.

A third reason for change is a strong and prevailing one. Starting in 2008, nearly eighty million baby-boomers will join the ranks of the sixty plus group. No group in American history has enjoyed a more prosperous lifestyle than baby-boomers. I predict they will not give it up without a fight. As we experience additional advances in medical science the time will soon be here when the sixty plus group will almost equal the adult population under sixty.  They will be able, confident, healthy and very capable of bringing as much to an employer as any other person, regardless of age. Such valuable human capital cannot and must not be wasted. Retirement as the baby-boomers’ parent knew it, is almost non-existent. So that leaves them unprepared to retire in the old fashioned way.

 Finally, America cannot afford the many developing warehouses called nursing homes (Assisted Living Facilities) where people go to live unproductively as they compare aches and pains all day every day. I don’t believe it was ever intended that life would stop in such an abrupt and wasteful manner. A great part of a healthy life is meaningfulness and purposefulness. Take these away and you have unfulfilled citizens who feel useless and so they rapidly decay. Such waste!

 A philosopher once remarked, “People grow old and die because they see other people growing old and dying.” I would add to that statement that they grow old and useless because our culture teaches it and often enforces it. The cultural landscape has changed markedly and in order to avoid this needless waste we must change with it.

 How can we change this deplorable condition? I offer a few measures that can be taken:

The number 65 was arbitrarily chosen. It might just as well have been ninety. Then we would be programming ourselves to be old at ninety. Each of us must recognize that we get what we expect; therefore we must dispel the myth and stop expecting to be old and unproductive at any age. The way we view life is our individual responsibility.

• Experience as a consultant has taught me that employers are loathe to bring about significant change without recognizing a need. Most change comes about out of pressure and a sense of urgency. Employers who discriminate must feel the pressure from the elderly in the form of boycotts and other peaceful means to get their attention.
• Our leaders in congress should also be made to feel the need to lead the way in removing conditions that minimize the importance of the elderly in this country. We should let them know our dissatisfaction and insist that the concerns of the elderly should be a much higher agenda item in the congress. Write to them and express your dissatisfaction with the violation of the civil rights of the elderly, especially in the area of employment.
• There are more than 35,000,000 persons over fifty who are members of AARP. The members of this group should express to AARP the need to become more aggressive in expressing its concerns about employment and other issues relating to aging. We must insist that AARP become more vocal and visible in their advocacy. In addition, AARP must become more circumspect about its own hiring practices.

 In America we have held several incorrect beliefs about certain members of our population. For a long time we harbored the belief that women should stay at home and function in domestic roles. Today we know better, in that women have proven themselves to be competent leaders in all walks of life. It had to become very necessary for women to make it on their own before we changed our concept of their capabilities.

 

For hundreds of years our culture harbored the belief that African-Americans were somehow inferior and deserving of the low level status of servitude. The concept was so strong and so fiercely enforced that many African-Americans believed it themselves. Today, African -Americans are stalwart leaders in every facet of our society, including the presidency.

Native Americans were considered to be so substandard that they were relegated to reservations. Their plight is not yet over but they are progressing.

 After having been so wrong in so many instances, to the detriment of these and other individuals, it is time we wake up and celebrate all segments of our population, freeing them from the myths of this culture to live their potential. I submit that America is as off base about aging as it has been about the aforementioned groups. It won’t be long until necessity will force a new concept of aging. As a result, we will preserve much capital.

 Come on America, let’s abandon the many myths that we live by and accept the fact that the spirit in us is omnipotent and readily available and capable of making us what we will to be. Thereby we can all have value and significance as long as we live. There is no better time than now to get started. 

We would do well to follow the words of Deepak Chopra in his book Ageless  Body, Timeless Mind:

“I would like you to join me in a journey of discovery. We will explore a place where the rules of every day existence do not apply. These rules state that to grow old, become frail, and die is the ultimate destiny of all. And so it has been for century after century. However, I want you to suspend your assumptions about what we call reality so that we can become pioneers in a land where youth vigor, renewal, creativity, joy, fulfillment, and timelessness are the common experience of everyday life, where old age, senility and infirmity, and death do not exist and are not even entertained as a possibility.

“If there is such a place, what is preventing us from going there? It is not some dark continental landmass or dangerous unchartered sea. It is our conditioning, our current collective world view that we were taught by our parents, teachers, and society. This way of seeing things–the old paradigm–has aptly been called ‘the hypnosis of social conditioning,’ an induced fiction in which we have collectively agreed to participate.”       

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