Greatest generation: Financial setbacks hurt most at end of life

Carol Forsloff - People in their 80’s and older who went through WWII and the Great Depression and who have been called the Greatest Generation, have seen their plight worsen with health and financial burdens.   Is it time to get back to remembering this group, when we think of patriotism?

The Greatest Generation is suffering despite their often-lauded status and having been defined great because of their sacrifices and suffering, all done without complaint. But it isn’t just the financial downturns that will cause many of them to suffer more than just a little bit.  ” It’s money and the “me first philosophy” that experts warn will cause many seniors to struggle now and in the years ahead.

 As homelessness and state funding is cutback in the wake of the recession, and as states worry about their budgets, social service agencies and charitable organizations observe a reported increase in the number of seniors in upper age brackets seeking help. Due to the housing crisis many are unable to sell their homes and move to where their children live. So they turn to public agencies, to state governments, church and private groups for aid. 

But local governments complain about financial burdens already too heavy for them to move forward on critical needs, namely paying salaries, while the impact of so many people out of work has created growing concern over charitable options for everyone. Also as working people try to keep their jobs and homes, it’s easy to forget those who are neither seen nor heard daily because they are tucked in some corner in an apartment complex, retirement center, or home away from those who in decades past were called upon to care for elders during hard times.

 Seniors struggle around the world now.  In Toronto The Star stated in December 2008 that 30% of Canadians believe they will have to work past 65. But most folks in their 80’s would neither be hired nor have the health or other resources to allow them to get out of their easy chairs, and more likely beds, and return to the workforce, as health professionals maintain. 

 The Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel several years ago wrote that those over 70 are likely to feel bleak by their next birthdays because few resources exist for upper age seniors during this recession. The Journal calls these people “the forgotten people” because no bail outs have been planned for them. This comes at a time when pension plans that do not provide fixed benefits, are seen likely to decline while 401K retirement plans already have declined. So the small, average $63/month Social Security increases at the turn of a year likely won’t do seniors very much good.'

In Hawaii the long-term residents who are past 80 find their property values have soared, so they fare fairly well.  On the other hand, the price of medicine and necessities for living still make budgets tight for people.  Those people who decide to retire in Hawaii find their money drained with housing costs, unless they know the best places on the islands to live, something not always readily available in the tourist brochures.

Some seniors are faring worse than they thought because they lost even more of their savings in the great upheavals of the stock market of several years ago.  The fact many of them did not remain in the stock market, or reenter it, means they may not have regained what they lost.

 But it’s the fact that seniors can’t rely on their last hope, their children, that is the saddest cut, according to elders across the country who bemoan the fact that they can’t move and don’t have the financial resources to pay for the kind of help they need. Furthermore folks lament that they will be unable to regain economic stability any time soon.

Economic experts tell us that it took until 1954 for the stock market to reach the level it had in 1929 at the time of the stock market crash. Folks in their 80’s don’t have 25 years to wait for help to arrive. So our greatest generation is rapidly becoming the forgotten generation by the culture that is predominated by baby boomer leadership, the “me first” folks, the group with the upper age senior parents, even though this greatest generation, people in their 80’s, was declared the best for doing all the right things.

The Greatest Generation sacrificed a great deal during the Depression and war years.  Those sacrifices might well be remembered every day, for the Greatest Generation to live out their remaining years with the respect and consideration it deserves.

Reflections on December 7

[caption id="attachment_21765" align="alignleft" width="300"] Bombing of the USS Shaw at Pearl Harbor[/caption]

Carol Forsloff---December 7 was labeled as the day "that shall live in infamy" by Franklin Roosevelt following the attack on Pearl Harbor  in 1941.  But the day did not just catapult America into war with Japan.  It was a watershed moment that set a new direction and attitude for the country, a division between the era of the baby boomers and those born before and during the war.

Much has been written about the needs, drives and motivations of the baby boomer generation.  Those characteristics were forged from the child-rearing practices set by Benjamin Spock and the idea that having lost time and the lives of many young men during war that those who fought that war would make sure their children would be safe and prosperous.  The decades of depression and war had left an indelible memory in the minds of those folks who lived through those years as adults.  It was a memory of a time and events they wanted to prevent from happening again to their children and grandchildren.

As the memories of the war began to fade, and new generations came along, what was forgotten was the community spirit that drove the nation, the pride in its strength and survival and its optimism once the war was over.  And those who fought and died during World War II are fading in numbers to the extent there are too few to serve as reminders of the sacrifice of the Greatest Generation.  These were people who acted on the premise that John F. Kennedy was to reiterate during his Presidency of asking not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

The entitlement generations that followed World War II came about as the older baby boomers passed along those notions that future generations should not have to suffer the calamities that had occurred during those war years and before.  On the other hand, the notion of service and earning one's place in life and in the culture was lost in the mix of having to have it all.

December 7 brought America to a fully-realized leadership in the world community even as it offered a demise of certain special values of offering service, recognizing that calamity is part of the circle of life and that to have it all at the expense of others might not be the right direction for interpersonal growth.  It creates social and political divisions and the need to get ahead to have it all in ways that actually do the culture harm.  Even within families, those born just before or during the war have different values than those born after it, and many of the differences that occur among people have to do with the differences in how children were raised to look at themselves and others.

December 7 ushered in war.  It also brought with it a change in relationships and attitude, some of which is reflected in how we behave today.  It was indeed a day that shall live in infamy for those who experienced the day itself and the years that followed it as well.