I wish I could pinpoint the exact moment or date when I realized I was Old. It wasn't seeing the gray hair; that's been happening since I turned 30. It wasn't being called "ma'am" by a young'un; even in my 20s I was once mistaken for a peer's mom, lol. It wasn't even that point, a few years ago, when I'm pretty sure I was turned down for a job because of my age. (I live in Los Angeles, where it's not uncommon to see job ads specifically asking for ages, or photos, from applicants.)
Maybe it was hearing Democratic party leaders talk about "entitlement reform"--because I'm so old that I remember when such talk was left to fringe nutters on the right. Maybe it was seeing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform the healthcare system further entrench its systemic failures, and being told "it was the best we could do." Maybe it was realizing that we won't have any meaningful campaign-finance reform during what's left of my lifetime, or meaningful healthcare reform, or meaningful financial reform, or meaningful additions to an ever-diminishing social-safety net.
Or maybe it was seeing how many of my boomer peers are struggling to make ends meet at a time when they were once told they would be able to retire.
For over a decade now, social scientists have noted a suicide spike among the middle-aged, particularly women:
A new five-year analysis of the nation’s death rates recently released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the suicide rate among 45-to-54-year-olds increased nearly 20 percent from 1999 to 2004, the latest year studied, far outpacing changes in nearly every other age group. (All figures are adjusted for population.)
For women 45 to 54, the rate leapt 31 percent. “That is certainly a break from trends of the past,” said Ann Haas, the research director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
And that was before the current economic downturn. Economic conditions for us Olds have only gotten worse over the past few years, as the media are starting to report.
Families struggle to build nest egg during recession:
Some financial planners continue to preach that long-term investing requires riding out the losses as well as the gains. Others are now telling clients to moderate their expectations - work longer, cut spending, downgrade retirement dreams - rather than crossing their fingers and hoping for bigger returns down the road.
"The real advice to individuals is that they have to be working at something they love because the reality is that they will be working longer," said Eleanor Blayney, consumer advocate for the Certified Financial Planners Board of Standards, a trade group.
Of course, building a "nest egg" is a luxury to those who have jobs. The economic downturn also has made employment more difficult for us Olds:
Of the 14.9 million unemployed, more than 2.2 million are 55 or older. Nearly half of them have been unemployed six months or longer, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate in the group — 7.3 percent — is at a record, more than double what it was at the beginning of the latest recession.
***
The most recent recession has increased the need to extend working life. Home values, often a family’s most important asset, have been battered. Stock portfolios are only now starting to recover. According to a Gallup poll in April, more than a third of people not yet retired plan to work beyond age 65, compared with just 12 percent in 1995.
Older workers who lose their jobs could pose a policy problem if they lose their ability to be self-sufficient. “That’s what we should be worrying about,” said Carl E. Van Horn, professor of public policy and director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, “what it means to this class of the new unemployables, people who have been cast adrift at a very vulnerable part of their career and their life.”
Forced early retirement imposes an intense financial strain, particularly for those at lower incomes. The recession and its aftermath have already pushed down some older workers. In figures released last week by the Census Bureau, the poverty rate among those 55 to 64 increased to 9.4 percent in 2009, from 8.6 percent in 2007.
Then, of course, there's the issue of health insurance. While the COBRA subsidies were one of the best parts of the stimulus bill, allowing millions of laid-off workers to continue their costly health insurance with help from the government, Congress decided to not renew and extend the subsidies this year:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If you lose your job after June 1, you'll see more than just your paycheck disappear. You also won't get the 65% federal subsidy to cover your COBRA health insurance premium.
That's because House Democrats last week opted not to extend the subsidy in order to bring down the cost of a jobs and tax bill winding its way through Congress. Continuing the provision through Dec. 31 would run $7.8 billion.
The loss of the 15-month subsidy leaves hundreds of thousands of newly jobless Americans to shoulder the burden of health insurance coverage on their own. On average, the monthly premium alone eats up 84% of a person's unemployment check, according to Families USA, a consumer advocacy group.
If you're a laid-off worker in your 50s living off of unemployment compensation, it's impossible to find an affordable policy in all but a handful of states. "But wait," some might say, "how about that PPACA legislation and its immediate benefits? Aren't you better off today than you were two years ago?"
The answer to that, for the vast majority, is "Not really." For one thing, there are no price controls on health insurance (Strongly Worded Letters from HHS don't count). In most states, even junk insurance--with thousands of dollars in deductibles and co-pays--now costs hundreds of dollars a month for us Olds. And in 2014, when community rating kicks in, we'll "only" have to pay 3x whatever stratospheric rates that young'uns will have to pay by then. If we're "lucky," maybe we'll be able to afford a Bronze Plan that "only" costs $800/month--but indentures us to 30 percent co-pays above and beyond our deductibles for all of our medical care.
I consider myself fortunate for someone my age: Because I'm self-employed, I'm not dependent on the whims of an employer as to whether I can pay my rent next month, although my income from self-employment has steadily diminished over the last three years. A business partnership to which I belong helps pay for my health insurance--although by the whims of the tax code, I end up having to pay FICA on that reimbursement, while my millionaire clients who live off their investments don't pay in a cent to FICA. I have an extended family and friends support network, and I know (and appreciate) that if things got really rough, I could count on them. And I'm healthy, thank god, because otherwise I would be bankrupt under the terms of my junk insurance.
But I'm scared--terrified, actually--by seeing my generation in such dire straits: struggling to care for elderly parents while trying to come up with college tuition for their children; going naked on health insurance that's been priced out of reach at a time when we most need it; losing their homes and retirement plans to the Weasels of Wall Street--and worst of all, being told to Be Patient, Change Doesn't Happen Overnight.
So many of us are hanging by a thread, and our arthritic hands are finding it hard to clap at all, much less clap harder. We see the Catfood Commission on the horizon and can't help but wonder what fresh hell is around the corner. Medicare pushed back to 67, to match our Reagan-era pushed-back retirement eligibility? Retirement deferment till age 70? No, many of us will not "wait and see" what the commission recommends, because we already lived through this during the Reagan years, and thought that by paying more into FICA over our working lives we were living up to our end of the social commitment that would take care of us during our retirement.
The purpose of my writing this diary isn't to discourage folks from voting, or from voting for Democrats, or for working toward electoral victory. Nor is it an argument that we Olds have it worse than the young'uns. Rather, it's an explanation as to why some of us are plumb tired of kneejerk tribalism, and incrementalism, and ginned-up generation wars created by the power elites--as well as a call for empathy, and action, and meaningful change.
I'm not sure whether that change will come from the established political parties or from outside groups like the Gray Panthers down the road. I do know that the numbers of us are on our side, and that it's up to us to demand--not wait--to be heard.