The Recession and Older Americans

"Inelegantly, and without my consent, time passed." - Miranda July

Whether I'm enjoying it or not, I have to face the fact that I'm getting older. I'm paying bills, I get judged when I order Happy Meals, and after I graduate I have to worry about securing a job in the real world and become a contributing member to society. Gross.

And of course as I'm getting older, so is the society and everyone in it around me, whether it's enjoyable or not.

This year, the first wave of Baby Boomers turned 65 years old. Millions upon millions of them are rushing toward the retirements which they’ve been entitled to, only to find out one huge problem: we don't have any money. The 2007-2009 recession has left us with growing unemployment, the collapse of the housing market, and a large drop in lifetime savings that has greatly affected the retirement security of older Americans.

I recently attended a hearing held by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee last week. At the hearing, entitled "The Recession and Older Americans: Where Do We Go From Here?" the National Council on Aging (NCOA) testified on behalf of older Americans and highlighted the issues that seniors are facing. They proposed solutions to protect and strengthen programs and services like Social Security, the Older Americans Act, Medicare, low income housing assistance, food stamps and more that are essential to help contribute to seniors' economic independence.

According to NCOA, more than 13 million older adults live in or on the edge of poverty, with less than $22,000 each year. The bottom 20% of older adults lives on incomes of less than $13,000, with the average being $7,000.  Yes, some people with many needs are forced to live on $7,000 a year.

When cultural issues, language barriers and lack of awareness are added to that, things can get a little more complicated. For Southeast Asian Americans (SEAA), 18.9% of elders live in poverty which is twice the national average, as stated by the 2009 American Community Survey.  The average annual benefit that SEAAs receive is $10,613 . Last year, NCOA recently started One Away, a campaign to let vulnerable and disadvantaged seniors tell their stories of struggle. These people only live one bad break, one accident, or one layoff away from economic disaster.

It’s easy to see Social Security as just another program that our tightly budgeted government has to spend money on, but we must remember what is at the core of it all: People. People who have contributed to our economy and society for decades. People who are our parents, grandparents, mentors, neighbors and friends. They're people who have paid into Social Security while they were working so they could get the benefits once they retire. As Chairman Bernard Sanders (D-VT) said, it’s easy to go to Capitol Hill and cut programs like Social Security,Medicare and Medicaid to save money. But it’s a lot harder to actually learn about how these cuts will affect human beings, and to see the suffering it’ll bring.

According to Eric Kingson, co-director of Social Security Works and panel speaker, we are living in “a state of amnesia,” where we don’t remember a world without Social Security, and we don’t remember having to worry about losing it and its benefits. We also don’t remember those people who are in the bottom 20% or the ones who will suffer if we don’t fight to keep these programs.

As I get older, I keep on adding to my list of things I need to - and want to do. Get a job, start eating meals made for adults, don't forget about the people around me, and continue fighting the good fight.

(Photo: Eric Kingson, co-director, Strengthen Social Security. View more photos from the hearing. )