What percent of Americans are 65 or older?
Critical Analysis
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, your big brain, the information provided and any links below:
As of 2020 what percent of Floridians were age 65 and older?
Currently, approximately what percent of Americans are age 65 and older?
By 2050 - in only 27 years - what percent of Americans are projected to be 65 and older?
In what year will you turn 65?
I like old people. I plan on being one some day (my wife says I already am!) Describe the long term demographic trend in aging as shown in the visual above.
Medicare is health insurance for people 65 or older. You may be eligible to get Medicare earlier if you have a disability, but generally it is for people age 65 and older. In fiscal year 2022, the Medicare program cost $747 billion — about 12 percent of total federal government spending. Medicare was the second largest program in the federal budget last year, after Social Security. Lil Yachty is currently 26 years old. Apart from some unforeseen disability, in what year will Lil Yachty most likely qualify for Medicare?
Old people (age 65 and up) cost more than young people (age 18 and down). In fact, according to The Brookings Institution, The United States spends 2.4 times as much on the elderly as on children, measured on a per capita basis, with the ratio rising to 7 to 1 if looking just at the federal budget. Explain how a rising elderly (65 and up) population as well as rising health care costs will impact future government spending.
My name is Mr. Milner. Once a student of mine called me Lil Milner. I cried. Another student called me Snoop Milner. That was okay. But then one student, borrowing from the “-iz, -izzle, -izzo, -ilz” speak which was developed by African Americans around the period of the Harlem Renaissance, with hotspots of the speak in Oakland, New York City, and Philadelphia - called me “Milnizzle”. That didn’t feel right. Do not call your teacher Lil _______ or Snoop _______, and fo shizzle don’t add izzle to their last name. Definitely. What is your name with the suffix -iz, -izzle, -izzo, -ilz added to it?
Elderly people also vote at much higher rates than children (WHO CAN’T LEGALLY VOTE!). Not only do they outvote children, they outvote just about every other age group. Elderly people like the government benefits they receive like Medicare (health insurance) and Social Security (guaranteed income). Based on what you know about the American political system, do you imagine the government will dramatically cut benefits to the elderly?
If spending on the elderly continues to increase, and government spending remains the same, what will happen to spending on all other things such as the Army, federal spending on roads through the Department of Transportation, The Marine Corps, Department of Education, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Federal Communications Commission, the United States Mint, National Institutes of Health, FBI, Transportation Security Administration, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the CIA, the Food And Drug Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, and NASA?
Visual Extension*
[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]Learning Extension
Action Extension
Tweet Joe Biden @JoeBiden and let him know what you think the government should do about an aging American population and govrnment spending.
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