GBO NEWS: Race & Retirement Security; Purpose Prize & Prejudice
GBO NEWS: GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations
Dec. 16, 2013 — Volume 13, Number 17
Editor’s Note: GBO News heads with holiday cheer for all toward the 21sth year of the Journalists Network on Generation in 2014. Click through this table of contents to the full issue at www.gbonews.org. This format is “scalable” for computer, e-pad or mobile.
IN THIS ISSUE: Santa’s List? Darn, NSA’s Already Has Yours–for Your Own Good, Of Course.
1. FISCAL REFORM SCHOOL: New Data on Race and Retirement Insecurity; ***Links to Plans to Expand Social Security
2. COVERAGE AT THE SOURCE: Alliance for Health Reform Releases Covering Health Issues: A Sourcebook for Journalists
3. GEN BEATLES NEWS: Katy Butler’s Knocking on Heaven’s Door Named to New York Times’ Top 100; ***TV’s Jane Pauley’s New Book, Your Life Calling
4. ON PURPOSE AGAINST PREJUDICE: Young and old generations fed whole to the Twitter class
1. FISCAL REFORM SCHOOL
*** “Race and Retirement Insecurity in the United States,” is a new report released last week by the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS). The analysis says, “People of color face particularly severe challenges in preparing for retirement.” Although no group is doing especially well, the study indicates, “Americans of color are significantly less likely than whites to have an employer-sponsored retirement plan or an individual retirement account, which substantially drives down the level of retirement savings.”
Signaling a national retirement crisis ahead, the report’s author, NIRS Research Manager Nari Rhee, said during a webinar last week that the typical household nearing retirement (ages 55-64) has only an average of $12,000 set aside in retirement savings to supplement often modest Social Security checks. Three of four black households and four in five Latino households of working age have less than $10,000 in retirement savings, compared to half of white households.
In addition, says the report, about two-thirds of black (62 percent) and Latino (69 percent) households of working age have no assets in a retirement account, compared to about one-in-three (37 percent) white households.
The new analysis supplements a report NIRS published earlier this year,
“The Retirement Savings Crisis: Is It Worse Than We Think?”
That study found that 45 percent, or 38 million working-age households, have zero assets in retirement accounts.
The report emphasizes, “Some 92 percent of working households do not meet conservative retirement-savings targets for their age and income. Even when counting their entire net worth, 65 percent still fall short.”
In a post about the NIRS studies, Richard Eisenberg, editor of the PBS website Next Avenue, noted Rhee’s observation that Australian employers are required to contribute to worker pension plans. Eisenberg explained that by law Australia’s retirement system compels companies to contribute 9.25 percent of earnings for almost all employees age 18 to 70. Eisenberg quotes Rhee, who stated, “We offer a lot of incentives for high-income savers, but not enough for low-income savers.”
*** “Social Security Is Especially Important to Minorities” is a recent analysis by Paul Van de Water of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in response to an Urban Institute study concluding that African Americans and Hispanics as a group each pay more in Social Security taxes in a given year than they receive in benefits.
“If true,” write Van de Water, “this stems more from the age composition of the population than from the structure of Social Security. The fact remains that Social Security is particularly important for minorities. Social Security’s benefit formula is weighted in favor of low-wage workers, who are disproportionately black and Hispanic; they receive higher monthly benefits as a percentage of their earnings than do higher-wage workers.” That is, the most affluent taxpayers get on average 28 percent of their pre-retirement income back from Social Security, while the poorest individuals receive over 55 percent, although the month amount is still pretty modest. So, while the Social Security payroll tax is regressive (the same for everyone), the payout is progressive depending on income level.
“Low earners are also more likely to become eligible for Social Security disability benefits,” Van de Water adds.
Noting how important the federal program is for ethnic elders, he explains, “Among beneficiaries aged 65 and older, Social Security represents 90 percent or more of income for 35 percent of elderly white beneficiaries, 42 percent of Asian Americans, 49 percent of blacks, and 55 percent of Hispanics.”
***Plans to Expand Social Security seem to be gaining traction because of the weak projected support from savings and private pensions, at least in the national debate. That’s despite the constant drone of calls to cut the program, such as by reducing its annual cost of living adjustment by instituting a tighter calculation called the “chained-CPI ( Consumer Price Index). Here, with thanks to Social Security Works, is a list of links reporters can tap to review some of the key proposals:
* Center for American Progress
* Commission to Modernize Social Security
* Latinos for Secure Retirement
* National Senior Citizens Law Center
2. COVERAGE AT THE SOURCE
*** Covering Health Issues: A Sourcebook for Journalists is the latest edition of the resource book that the bipartisan Alliance for Health Reform updates about annually to help reporters cut through the complications and get a well-honed picture of the key issues. The 180-page book, produced with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, includes 14 chapters on such wide-ranging topics as the Affordable Care Act, health care costs, information technology, Medicare, dual eligible (low-income people on both Medicare and Medicaid), and disparities on health and mental health.
Each brief chapter is in readable type for eyes young and old, with good sidebars, such as ““Fast Facts” and “What’s Next” bullet points on key policy developments to watch in the coming year. Sections also provide the names and contact details for top experts in each subject area, along with a comprehensive glossary of health care policy terms. Reporters can download the book free as a PDF or access individual chapters.
Covering Health Issues is a great desk reference for any reporter needing a quick tutorial on major story areas and who to call for expert background and quotes.
***Early Bird Entry Deadline, Dec. 20: Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism . Given by the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), the first-place awards include a $500 prize—with, says the release, “a framed certificate”(pretty snazzy), and a trip the group’s national conference March 27-30 in Denver. Competitions are for health reporting in print, broadcast and online media. ”Entries can include a wide range of health coverage including public health, consumer health, medical research, the business of health care and health ethics,” says AHCJ. The final deadline for entries is Jan. 13, but early birds get the discount. For information or to submit applications, visit this AHCJ website.
3. GEN BEATLES NEWS
***Knocking on the Bestseller Door: Congrats to journalist Katy Butler, whose book on the unlikely bestseller topic of death and dying made the New York Times list of best 100 books of 2013. The volume, Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death, reached several lists of top sellers, including #23 on the Times’ nonfiction roster.
***TV’s Jane Pauley Co-emceed the Purpose Prize Ceremony two weeks ago honoring outstanding social entrepreneurs over age 60. She cheerily autographed advance copies of her forthcoming book, Your Life Calling: Reimagining the Rest of Your Life (Simon & Schuster, January 7, 2014) AARP lists her as the organization’s “Today Show” contributor on the topic of later life social engagement for boomers. The book includes her own story and those of numerous others she interviewed. For press kits and review copies, contact Anne Pearce.
4. ON PURPOSE AGAINST PREJUDICE
I found myself last Friday explaining to two fellow staffers at New America Media, of the X and Millennial generations, that unlike our other newsbeats, aging doesn’t always entail the search for new stories, but rather the hunt for fresh angles on the Groundhog Day recurrence of assaults on older people for being, well, old. A week of inspiring encounters with genuinely caring social activators – creators, not only activists, young and old – I found myself groundhogged once again, this time with a twist. One youthful blogger emitted a lengthy screed against American capitalism as perpetuated by – you guessed it – the rising new elder class (read baby boomers). More about that later.
Generational stereotyping goes both ways. A couple of weeks ago, the Sunday New York Times included a cheering op-ed, “Millennial Searchers”, by two Stanford University-based researchers. Their survey of Americans in their 20s found that, rather than being “selfish,” a widely flogged media condemnation, “Millennials appear to be more interested in living lives defined by meaning than by what some would call happiness. They report being less focused on financial success than they are on making a difference.”
Later in that week, I witnessed an anecdotal example of this in meetings our editorial staff held with deeply dedicated young people assigned to collaborate with our news staff on project to help low-income ethnic seniors facing major changes in their Medicare and Medicaid programs.
At the upper end of the age scale, “GBO News” regulars know, this editor has documented recurring rashes of derisive articles about “Greedy Geezers” over the years. So it was my great pleasure later that same week to attended a presentation near San Francisco of the “Purpose Prizes,” the $100,000 MacArthur-type award to social entrepreneurs over age 60. The seven awardees this year join a network that Encore.org has created of almost 500 winners and “encore career” fellows selected over the last eight years. Each has created a public service organization in later life.
Among the 2013 winners is Vicki Thomas, who joined up with Purple Heart Homes to help returned veterans access services and settle in permanent homes. Barbara Young, an immigrant from Barbados, fights for the rights of the nation’s 2 million domestic workers. Carol Fennelly founded Hope House in Washington, D.C., to help prison inmates—especially fathers, who typically become estranged from their families–stay in contact with their children.
The instinct to give back in later life isn’t merely the privilege of a golden circle, such as Purpose Prize winners or the group called The Elders, with world leaders, such as Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter and, until two weeks ago, Nelson Mandela. The Purpose Prize winners alone are among 8,000 people nominated for the honor over the years. And Encore.org found in 2011 research that many more older people are doing great things nationwide, to give back to their communities.
Much like the Millennials of the survey in the Times, many seniors focus their vision on their purpose in this too-short life. (Cue a heavy sigh here.)
As last week progressed, a young colleague forwarded a link to me of a piece headlined, “The Youth Lower Class: The dirty capitalist secret behind ‘those damn kids’” by one Adam Rothstein, who has written for The Atlantic Tech, Rhizome.org and Twitter feeds everywhere. His blog says he’s writing book for Bloomberg on drones. Mind you, the blogosphere incubates untold numbers of odd notions, and some of them more reflect mainstream attitudes than provide well-researched opinion.
Rothstein describes himself as “an insurgent archivist,” who writes about “politics, media and technology wherever he can get a signal.” Evidently, the signal for this one crossed somewhere between The Nation and Fox News. It was also a week that also saw AngelHack CEO Greg Gopman callously complain on Facebook literally to the entire world, that homeless people in San Francisco’s are “degenerates [who] gather like hyenas, spit, urinate, taunt you, sell drugs, [and] get rowdy.” He apologized, in the modern media manner, but could not easily backtrack from his derision of these very vulnerable people: “It’s a burden and a liability having them so close to us.” Us?
I mention the Gropman snafu—oh, the stock price!—because the accusation of burden and uselessness has long dogged older Americans. Rothstein’s peculiar vitriol against the old is regrettably typical of assaults on them I’ve heard for years. That social media also carries the anti-social far and wide can make a viral epidemic of any coffeehouse musings.
Rothstein begins fairly enough, “I just turned 31, and finally I believe I get it. Generations don’t really exist—they are arbitrary distinctions, identified by any number of cultural traits (music genres, common technologies, clothes, etc.).” Rothstein’s economic framing could well earn nods from Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobelist who defined widening inequality as exploitation of the 99% by the 1%, or the late social historian Theodore Roszak in his 2009 book, The Making of an Elder Culture.
“Make no mistake,” Rothstein declares, “we live in times of surplus, and scarcity is a thing of the past. . . . This isn’t a dog-eat-dog society, we’re only taught to believe it is. Our economic system works in such a way that we believe one must have a job in order to afford food and a place to live… All of that value that our society makes is completely elusive to most people—but not because it doesn’t exist. It’s just somewhere out of reach.”
He cites U.S. poverty figures showing that 58 percent of Americans will experience poverty sometime during their lives. Rothstein continues that given a more equal distribution of American GDP wealth, “Those who have accumulated more property, insurance, and savings than they need would be just as connected to the economic system as those who work for minimum wage and need food stamps to survive. This new narrative would be about surplus and sharing.” Agree or not, his logic is consistent.
And then this: “Generations are just a misnomer for class relations… A class is a group that protects its own interests.” The fiction of generations masking class differences to Rothstein is, he declares, “the abuse of younger generations by older generations.” It is “just good old fashioned conservatism. The music is too loud, the colors too bright, the cars are too fast, and they don’t do it quite the way that I did.” Huh?
Rothstein could have been railing at his elder class just as well in 1954, say, about the evils of rock and roll. Or maybe 1964, when my father had to ask me to leave the casino he worked at because his supervisor wanted to know who that damn hippie was with the long hair and get him outahere. My dad, deeply ashamed and resentful of having to do this, saw class differently. He had no union to protect his minimum-wage job, so dependent on customer tips.
Why, Rothstein laments, can’t “the old age class” see their commonality with the “young age class” and “finally decide to make the journey together, or continue to be separated by our so-called ‘generations’”? Because Rothstein surmises, elders have so bought into the conservative argument “they feel this scarcity as a paranoia about losing what they have. Their career, their investments, and their property all feel like an island in the storm … The lifestyles that they’ve lived for years could fail them. And then what would they do? What would any of us do?”
His evidence: “Look at their means of transportation. The older, more secure age class drive large cars, well made cars, trucks and SUVs. The younger class drive cheap compacts, or ride bicycles with nothing separating them from the traffic but a plastic helmet. Or they ride buses.” (I’ll be glad to show him my monthly pass for San Francisco’s public transportation system, since I haven’t owned a care in 20 years.)
And what of the youthful purity Rothstein assumes dominates his Millennial class? Here in San Francisco, his earnest cohort is increasingly being accused of moving as fast as the wifi-enabled fleet of Google employee buses that are currently elevating the blood pressure of many in San Francisco against those young professionals. That narrative, as derisive against the young as Rothstein is of the old, commonly depicts bright twentysomethings as selfish, overpaid “techies” who are driving up rents and driving out working class families, artists and – guess who? – the old and disabled. Even the nonprofit agencies serving vulnerable people are being evicted due to skyrocketing rents in the so-called Twitter tax zone, where companies have received tax breaks to move into the City by the Bay.
My young colleague at New America Media, Jay Rooney, posted a commentary last week titled, “Blaming ‘Techies’ for Housing Crisis Misses Bigger Picture.” After describing multiple forces exacting a greater influence on the city’s housing crisis than young people arriving for good jobs—for instance, real estates speculators and political deal making—Rooney states, “The accusations and name-calling imply that the tech labor force is monolithic.”
For young or old, of course, the real monolith that seems to block the sunlight is prejudice.
What’s especially dismaying about Rothstein’s display of over-educated ignorance is not a matter of pro-youth bias, or from my viewpoint, abject ageism. The deep flaw there is tired but ageless “They-ism.” If you embrace your division from the other, you are destined to become another’s other.
And American media—Twitter feeds and all–will gladly accommodate anyone’s itch to create controversy, no matter how fake it may be.
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The Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), founded in 1993, publishes Generations Beat Online with in-kind support from New America Media (NAM). JNG provides information and networking opportunities for journalists covering generational issues, but not those representing services, products or lobbying agendas. NAM is an online, nonprofit news service reaching 3,000 ethnic media outlets in the United States. GBO News readers are invited to visit the NAM website, and click on the Ethnic Elders section logo on the right side. Opinions expressed in GBO do not represent those of NAM. Copyright 2013, JNG. For more information contact GBO Editor Paul Kleyman.
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