1. TESS WATSON, ELIZABETH ZAYLOR, JARAD WINGET
The Graying of America
TESS WATSON, ELIZABETH ZAYLOR,
JARAD WINGET

2. The Baby Boom 20% of Americans will be 65 or older by 2030
The median age has increased from 28 to 38 over the past 40 years
Average life expectancy has increased from 47 to 70 since 1900
Less children per capita
Population growth is stagnant while life expectancy is rising
The senior population is growing at twice the rate of everyone else

3. Social Security
33% of federal budget is allocated to Americans above the age of 65
Social Security expenditure of $500B per year for those above age 65
Retired individuals collect between 2-5 times what payroll taxes take out for social security

5. Medicare Costs around $350 billion/year
One-third of $300 billion Medicaid budget goes to people over 65
Medicare’s share of the GDP will double within 15 years
30% of Medicare budget goes to those in last year of life
Each American under 65 pays an average of $1,600 yearly to subsidize medical care for the elderly
The elderly receive Medicare benefits worth five to twenty times the payroll taxes (plus interest) that they paid for this program

6. Medicare cont.
How does medical care for the elderly in America compare to that of other countries?
No other country in the world goes to the lengths that America does to preserve life
Medicare routinely pays for heart transplants, coronary bypass operations (costing $40,000+ each), kidney dialysis
Britain’s National Health Service will not provide kidney dialysis for those over 55
Japanese do not offer organ transplants

7. Costs to Younger Generations
For Social Security and Medicare to stay as they are, payroll tax rate may need to rise to 25% of wages in next fifteen years – may rise to 40% by 2050
1946: 42 workers share burden for one Social Security recipient
1960: 9 workers share the same burden
Currently: 3 workers support each retiree’s benefits
By 2030: only 2 workers will support each recipient
A working couple will have to support themselves, their family, and someone outside the family who is receiving Social Security and Medicare benefits

8. A retired couple receives $40,000/year between Social Security and Medicare benefits
Working couple pays about half this yearly in taxes
Retired couple has stronger incentive to push for benefits than working couple has to resist them
Senior citizens vote at much higher rate than any other age group
If Social Security and Medicare stay on current path, burden on our peers in the future is likely to be unbearable