Introduction to Sociology/Aging

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Ageing or aging is the process of becoming older. Ageing is an important part of all human societies reflecting the biological changes that occur, but also reflecting cultural and societal conventions. Age is usually, but wholly arbitrarily, measured in years and a person's birthday is often an important event.

There is often considerable social pressure in many modern societies to hide signs of ageing, especially among women. This may involve dyeing hair, elaborate make-up, or even cosmetic surgery. Among the young however there is often a desire to seem older to gain more responsibility and respect.

The issues of an ageing population in which the average age of a society is increasing is an important issue in many nations of the world. The societal effects of age are great. Young people tend to commit most crimes, they are more likely to push for political and social change, to develop and adopt new technologies, and to need education. Older people have different requirements from government as opposed to young people, and frequently differing values as well. Older people are also far more likely to vote and thus have comparatively more political influence.

Contents

[edit] Socially Constructed Aspects of Ageing

As William Graebner showed more than a quarter century ago in A History of Retirement: The Meaning and the Function of an American Institution (1980), retirement only became a "universal" American institution in the postwar era, as the growth of Social Security and private pensions dramatically expanded the safety net available to aging workers who were leaving the labor market.

[edit] Issues Surrounding Ageing

[edit] Social Security and Income

Social security primarily refers to social welfare service concerned with social protection, or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, and unemployment. Social protection refers to a set of benefits available (or not available) from the state, market, civil society and households, or through a combination of these agencies, to the individual/households to reduce multi-dimensional deprivation. This multi-dimensional deprivation could be affecting less active poor persons (e.g. the elderly, disabled) and active poor persons (e.g. unemployed). This broad framework makes this concept more acceptable in developing countries than the concept of social security. Social security is more applicable in the conditions, where large numbers of citizens depend on the formal economy for their livelihood. Through a defined contribution, this social security may be managed. But, in the context of wide spread informal economy, formal social security arrangements are almost absent for the vast majority of the working population. Besides, in developing countries, the state's capacity to reach the vast majority of the poor people may be limited because of its limited resources. In such a context, multiple agencies that could provide for social protection is important for policy consideration. The framework of social protection is thus capable of holding the state responsible to provide for the poorest sections by regulating non-state agencies.

In the U.S., Social Security was instituted in the 1930s. The Social Security Act was drafted by President Roosevelt's committee on economic security, under Edwin Witte, and passed by Congress as part of the New Deal. It was controversial when originally proposed, with one point of opposition being that it would cause a loss of jobs. However, proponents argued that there was in fact an advantage: it would encourage older workers to retire, thereby creating opportunities for younger people to find jobs, which would lower the unemployment rate. The Act provided benefits to retirees and the unemployed, and a lump-sum benefit at death. Payments to current retirees were (and continue to be) financed by a payroll tax on current workers' wages, half directly as a payroll tax and half paid by the employer. Payroll taxes were first collected in 1937, also the year in which the first benefits were paid, namely the lump-sum death benefit paid to 53,236 beneficiaries.

While generally considered a highly successful program at reducing poverty among the elderly, Social Security is currently experiencing problems. If no changes are made to the program, Social Security's reserves will be depleted by 2041.[1] This is resulting from the lower ratio of employed workers to benefit recipients, a ratio that continues to decrease as the U.S. population grows more elderly. Full social security payments will still occur until 2041, at which point social security recipients will receive lower benefits, unless other measures are taken.

[edit] Treatment of the Elderly/Elder Abuse

[edit] Senescence: the biology of ageing

In biology, senescence is the state or process of ageing. Cellular senescence is a phenomenon where isolated cells demonstrate a limited ability to divide in culture. Organismal senescence is the ageing of organisms. Organismal ageing is generally characterized by the declining ability to respond to stress, increasing homeostatic imbalance and increased risk of disease. Because of this, death is the ultimate consequence of ageing. Some researchers are treating ageing as a "disease" in gerontology (specifically biogerontologists), although this view is controversial.

[edit] Dividing the lifespan

A human life is often arbitrarily divided into various ages. Because biological changes are slow moving and vary from person to person arbitrary dates are usually set to mark periods of human life. In the USA and many other countries, Adulthood legally begins at the age of eighteen or nineteen, while old age is considered to begin at age sixty-five.

[edit] Age and the law

There are many legal limits that are attached to age such as voting age, drinking age, age of consent, age of criminal responsibility, marriageable age, age where one can hold public office, and mandatory retirement age.

In jurisprudence, the defence of infancy is a form of defence by which a defendant argues that, at the time a law was broken, they were not liable for their actions, and thus should not be held liable for a crime. Many courts recognize that defendants, which are considered to be juveniles, may avoid criminal prosecution on account of their age.

[edit] Economics and marketing of ageing

The economics of ageing are also of great import. Children and teenagers have little money of their own, but most of it is available for buying consumer goods. They also have considerable impact on how their parents spent their money.

Young adults are an even more valuable cohort. They often have jobs with few responsibilities such as a mortgage or children. They do not yet have set buying habits and are more open to new products.

The young are thus the central target of marketers. Television is programmed to attract the 15 to 35 years olds. Movies are also built around appealing to the young.

The middle aged and the old are less likely to buy things and are traditionally viewed as being set in their buying habits and not nearly as open to marketing. Older people tend to be much wealthier and to save a much higher percentage of their income.

Some tax systems attempt to address these differences in age spending habits such as the concept of a lifetime income tax.

[edit] Global ageing trends

There have been small changes in age distribution between 1990 and 2000. The percent of population that is older increased slightly between 1990 and 2000 from 9% to almost 10%. The increase was larger within more developed countries, from 17.7% to 19.4%. The percent of population that is older is almost three times as high in more developed countries (19.4%) as it is in less developed countries (7.7%).

[edit] References

  1. ↑ Pear, Robert. 2008. “White House Offers Grim Outlook for Medicare.” The New York Times, March 25 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/washington/25cnd-benefit.html (Accessed April 1, 2008).

[edit] External links

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