Word: agee
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...many young people do not see it that way. In their view, Washington is already doing too much for aged citizens, a perception that could bring about a serious breach between the generations. Already the emerging power of America's grandparents frightens many of their children and grandchildren. Some experts forecast a costly confrontation, in which embittered young people and embattled older ones fight with the most sophisticated political weapons over ever scarcer resources. In the shorthand of demographers and journalists, the scenario is known as the age wars...
...such sentiments and statistics is the fear of an age war born. Lured by high stakes and intuitive appeal, the lobbyists are swarming around the "generational equity" issue. Three years ago, Republican Senator David Durenberger from Minnesota helped establish the youth-advocacy group AGE (Americans for Generational Equity) to advance the claims of the young and counterbalance the powerful gray lobby. "The AARP is almost totally focused on the well being of its clients," says AGE Executive Director Paul Hewitt, "but they are going to have to address ways to avoid putting unbearable burdens on the baby boomers' children." Other...
When the social costs of the age quake -- the arrival of the baby boomers into their golden years -- are tallied, the figures become even more alarming. The $50 billion spent on health care for the old when Reagan came into office is expected to reach $200 billion by the year 2000. Between 1980 and 2040, experts project a 160% increase in physician visits by the elderly, a 200% rise in days of hospital care, a 280% growth in the number of nursing-home residents. Between now and the year 2000, a new 220-bed nursing home will have...
Senior citizens deeply resent critics who seem to begrudge them their independence or imply that anyone ever got rich on a $500-a-month check. Many retirees worked hard, lived frugally and saved carefully to guard against the nightmare of a destitute old age. And while it is true the elderly consume roughly a third of the nation's medical resources, Medicare cannot begin to cover all the costs of a long illness. Already senior citizens pay three times as much out of their own pockets for health care as the young do. They view their benefits as a right...
...Argues Horace Brock, president of Strategic Economic Decisions Inc. in Menlo Park, Calif.: "There may have been a social contract that what you put in you got back, but not six times what you put in." Unless the system is revamped, he warns, when the baby boomers reach retirement age, Social Security will be in jeopardy. Just as alarming, the trust fund that supports the hospital-insurance part of Medicare could be bankrupt...