Written by Michael Thervil
When it comes to both joblessness and underemployment for people between the ages of 25 to 45, there’s a hidden issue that many people fail to see and therefore will fail by default to address and that is the older generation of people working well into their Golden Years. Backing our position here at VEDA Magazine is a study that was conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics which states that the percentage rate of people that are still working into their Golden Years (ages 65-74) are around:
“25.8% as of 2021 and projected to be 30.7% by 2031.”
It was also stated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis that:
"Seniors aged 65 to 69, past the standard retirement age, are actually more likely to have a job than teenagers. A full 32 percent of these post-retirement-age seniors have jobs, up from less than one-quarter in 2000."
This begs the question: “what exactly is happening where a vast majority of people in their golden years have to continue to work until their death?” It’s a simple answer with a myriad of answers that many people in the United States think we need to not only account for but address so that the employment gap between generations can be rectified. So, is forced retirement an option that both state and federal governments are ready to entertain so that America can make room for the next generation of workers?
Currently, congress, and state and federal governmental agencies are attempting to tackle this social dilemma with no success in sight. The biggest reason why so many older Americans are still working is not because they want to but because they must. What we mean by this is that a large proportion of Americans in their Golden Years are working because of a lack of having anything in savings coupled with the fact that many older Americans don’t receive enough in social security to retire. Also, there is the issue of rampant inflation in America; with daily living costs consistently rising and the value of the American Dollar decreasing – many older Americans are finding themselves in a position to have to work additional jobs just to supplement the income they receive from Social Security.
Moreover, it was reported that health issues are another reason why many older Americans are having to work well into their golden years. Many would think that adverse health reasons would be the biggest contributing factor to why older adults would retire – but the opposite is true. With Americans being forced to deal with rising health and drug treatment costs, they must work to either pay for the treatment and/or to obtain employment to get on an employer’s healthcare plan. The real question is why is the system set up this way? And what’s going on where America can’t put a system in place to thoroughly take care of its sector of aging adults? More specifically, why isn’t there some kind of universal basic income plan available that can provide decent economic security for their aging adults?
If you ask any older American, they will quickly tell you that they don’t and can’t rely on Social Security or Medicare to even pay for their most basic of necessities. Meanwhile, on the employment front, younger generations are having to suffer from a lack of years’ experience needed so that they can boost their earning potential so they can have the opportunity to set themselves up for a proper retirement, hence paving the way in the workforce for the generation that is to come after them. Supporting our position was a government report published by congress that stated:
“Medicare recipients will face automatic benefit cuts starting in 2031 and social security won’t be able to make full retirement payments starting in 2033 unless congress intervenes.”
It looks like a lot of people will be on that chopping block and those people seem like the American public. In the words of Gerald Celente of the Trends Research Institute – “Welcome to “Slavlandia”.”
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