United States: Americans are currently facing a variety of issues. Some share concerns about our border crisis, while others focus on the rising cost of food and fuel, making it difficult to make ends meet.
Globally, growing concerns about long-lasting wars, terrorist attacks, and individual country’s increasing thirst for power remain at the forefront. Still, others see a serious threat from the recent wave of advancements in artificial intelligence that could change America as we know it.
However, another less well-known problem is ignored. It negatively impacts almost everyone’s physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.
That crisis involves the vast growth of an aging population accompanied by diminishing numbers of young people, according to the reports.
It has been widely recognized that our entitlement programs, which support older adults, are not sustainable in the long run. For instance, when Social Security was first established, many young workers contributed to the payments received by each senior citizen.
The ratio of workers to benefits has significantly decreased over time, now closer to 2-1, compared to over 40 workers for each benefit previously.
Medicare faces a similar challenge.
The solution to the issue is that we continue to have fewer children but more elderly people who live longer, which is less generally recognized. It seems that all reform attempts are politically doomed.
Furthermore, these initiatives will likely be out of money very soon.
However, that issue is just the beginning for contemporary cultures like America. Economically, we have shifted over time. Families have become dispersed across generations to sometimes distant locations, as per reports.
Parents who are too old to live with their immediate family become increasingly frail. Divorces and other domestic upheavals frequently produce tension in family relationships.
The once-wide network of siblings who could share parental caregiving responsibilities has shrunk significantly.
In addition, the traditional single-provider model—in which women stayed at home and typically took care of both younger and older generations—has been supplanted by the two-income family, mainly due to financial need.
Crucially, the elderly are living longer, which means that their children, who are responsible for caring for them, are also older and may find the work too much to handle.
This final factor could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back since it forces people already becoming less capable and adaptable to make extraordinarily tough choices regarding their parents.
Those selections may become more complex when finances are insufficient to cover several years of costly care in assisted living or nursing homes, according to reports.
Unless families can provide caregiving themselves, many will deplete their elderly parents’ assets under the current system. This situation often forces them into a state of pauperization as they transition to a Medicaid facility.
When faced with this issue, many people will undoubtedly discover that they are unprepared and that their resources are insufficient.
The first two categories concern resource stewardship. Everyone should consider how to best position themselves and their families financially.
That would put a lot more emphasis on saving money to care for our loved ones and ourselves in the future rather than amassing stuff and traveling.
Additionally, the dangerous dynamic of a sizable aging population supported by a smaller, younger population will need to be more fully considered in American public policy.
What matters most is that to confront the catastrophe, we will need to grow closer and more spiritually resilient. As per reports, we must strengthen our relationships with our families, churches, and communities.
Our families need to become closer and more connected instead of more scattered and distant.
How many of us have fond memories of spending our childhoods surrounded by large families at holiday and birthday get-togethers? How many others have witnessed a decrease in these kinds of events?
How many people, if they attend a church at all, have expectations of their members that are more focused on a consumer or entertainment experience than on meaningful spiritual development and respectful relationships?
Addressing the care of elderly parents and grandparents is crucial.
Past generations were better equipped to handle aging realities.
To be responsible and kind to our parents, we must reconnect the spiritual and social fabric.
Do you believe that our entitlement programs for the elderly are sustainable in the long run?