Aging

Both the economy and quality of life would get a boost if U.S. retirees spent as much as old people elsewhere. Why don’t they? The lack of an adequate safety net breeds fear.

For those aged 45 to 54, there is a range of policy options — beyond the fatalistic prescription to “just work longer” — that has the potential to materially enhance retirement security, if adopted quickly. For those aged 55 to 64 the outlook is bleaker, though there are steps that could be taken to ameliorate the worst of the anticipated impacts on the poorest retirees. Despite the availability of a potential solution for the 45- to 54-year-old group and of an improved safety net for the 55- to 64-year-old group, no one we spoke with suggested that the political will to effect such changes exists today.

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As the number of elderly Americans grows, some suggest that they are going to have to make due with less support. But many older people already face increasing isolation as the years go on; they live in fear of losing their homes. One recent response: a "Village model" where members and non-member volunteers join in an organized system of mutual aid.

Of all the fantasies indulged in by a society speeding toward self-destruction, none is as consequential as the idea that continuing growth has a happy-ever-after ending. But even if ever-increasing population were survivable, is it really desirable? Can't we figure out any adaptations to enable an aging society to be economically and socially robust?

The abandonment of the element of the Affordable Care Act that was designed to provide insurance against the staggering costs of long-term care, announced by the Obama administration last Friday, raises important questions about the wisdom of having a strategy of always going for a legislative "half a loaf," especially when doing so obliges you both to understate the real costs of dealing with problems and to oversell the promise and potential of your solutions.

Missed this when first reported? Despite a looming public health crisis, lawmakers have yet to seriously address the problem of physician supply. And because it takes a long time to train a doctor, the window to act is closing fast. Also see "Nurses to the rescue?" and "Recruiting of foreign doctors."

Despite looming public health crisis, lawmakers have yet to seriously address the problem.

A shift in demographics to relatively smaller cohorts of young people is almost never viewed as presenting an opportunity, just as the challenge of how to successfully support a greater percentage of older people without lower living standards either for them or their younger compatriots is virtually never viewed as one worth facing and winning.