Poverty in Aging

As if aging in todays’ society was not difficult enough, imagine being old and having to face penury. Many people think that they will grow old to collect pensions and retirement, but this does not always seem to be the case. Arthur E. Morgan once said, “Preparation for old age should begin not later than ones teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly become filled on retirement.” What Morgan is trying to explain is that many people did not plan their future and/or they spent their savings too quickly. In addition, as people age, they start to lose more money, account balances are decreased, and people become impoverished. This paper will discuss the background history and causes of poverty, the impact of poverty on the environment, society, and individuals, and the solutions us as Americans can use to decrease poverty.

Poverty is the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support. Research has shown that poverty has been existent since before time. Nearly half of all Americans between 60 and 90 will encounter at least one year of poverty (Martin 1). The contributing factors of poverty in Americans, ages 54-64, are lack of jobs that pay adequate wages which include fast food jobs that most teens get as a starter job, high cost of health care such as expensive nursing homes, rising costs of medicines, co-pays and treatments, the income gap between the rich and the poor, good jobs in areas where there is a lack of access to transportation, increased economic globalization, and lack of inexpensive child care for single women, and for elders who take care of their grand children, and some causes of poverty can simply be the result of making bad decisions, such as drug abuse,gamb...

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...o popular that most Americans support expanding its coverage to Americans ages 55-64 (Shakir 1). The solution should be to open more shelters, closer health care centers to people without transportation, and community support for elders who do not have family that takes care of them.

Even though poverty is a huge issue in America, there is hope for the impoverished. If the government stresses the seriousness of poverty and teaches people how to save money, poverty will decrease. Living in Poverty is our own fault. “It is based on bad choices, not a bad economy. The poor are getting poorer because of the lack of education, and knowledge of their futures; which is the second demographic characteristic of poverty. The ranks of the impoverished overflow with high school dropouts who are at a great disadvantage in today’s increasingly knowledgable economy’’ (Malanga 1).