Honestly, I’ve spent most of the morning with a mental hand clamped over my mouth.
One thing I’ve come to realize is that this weblog is also for thoughts that fly in, and with any luck, out into the great unknown and can’t find their way back. This thought is like that, only it’s not fully researched and not fully formed, and shouldn’t perhaps, be uttered.
However, it escapes me: There are definitely a new set of problems that we’ve created in the last fifty years, and a new one that we’re in the process of screwing together right now. Population versus borders.
It affects us now: The longer we’re living–now in the high 70s for both men and women, and an extraordinary number of those making it well into the 90s–has changed both the way each generation is living and will continue to do so for quite a while. Not even taking into consideration the immigration and illegal alien inflow over the past couple of decades, the elderly alone are adding to the population simply by not dying when they (we) were expected to die.
Now I’ve been on the wrong side of women’s rights in some ways, basically, because I felt that two-income families produced a higher proportion of the borderline wealthy while many other families were being dropped into the lower socioeconomic strata by not even having the man in the house able to get a job. So you can see I’m real hesitant to blame the elderly for creating another possible bad economic and space situation. However, I’m female and a member of the baby boomer generation, so I feel that since I’m including myself in the problem once again, I may have some right to an opinion. Besides, the problem’s going to be on the next couple generations behind me to feel the fallout.
While it’s great to live longer if you’re healthy, you also want to be productive, and, since it’s costing so damn much to live these days, the older person may not just want, but have to work to maintain home and hearth, and the tax man. Now it’s not entirely our fault; the government is now saying that to get full retirement benefits, or at least the best out of it, we must work until we’re minimum 67 (or so) and up to 72 is best. That’s ten years longer than a few decades ago when 62 to 65 was near mandatory. In this age group, other than on a more skilled or professional level, the folks are vying for jobs that would otherwise be taken by high school graduates. Do we as an age group have such a right? Wasn’t the plan to raise families who can then replace us?
I’m close enough to entering the "sunshine" years to speak up about them. I don’t expect anyone to pay my way in my later years–regardless of whether I’m granted extra and beyond–just as I don’t take handouts now. I don’t have children to burden, and I sure don’t want to dump on society either. But if I work, I’m keeping someone younger from a job (I realize this is pretty far-fetched in this age-aware employment mentality, but bear with me on the premise). So what to do about this possible debacle before or once it shows it’s impact?
Now that’s an idea for a novel.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology