Fear of Financial Insecurity among Older and Younger Adults

• In Event: Population Aging and Public Policy

Abstract

The U.S. social welfare system is among the most elderly-oriented systems among developed countries. The lion’s share of social spending goes to old-age and retirement-related entitlements, while social welfare spending on younger adults and children consists largely of relatively meager and stigmatized means-tested programs. Working-age adults in both early and later stages of their careers may earn income as well as job-related health and pension benefits, but many lack such benefits and job security. The poverty rate for Americans aged 65 and over is lower than for the population as a whole. Do older people, therefore, feel more financially secure than younger adults feel? This is an important political question, given the power of emotion in politics. We explore this question using data from the Chapman University Survey on American Fears.
The Chapman Survey gauges the extent of respondents’ specific fears ranging from crime, illness, and natural disasters to terrorism, government corruption, and identity theft; from reptiles and insects to zombies, ghosts, and clowns—about 100 fears in all. This study will focus on the fear of not having enough money for the future, and the fear of high medical bills, across age groups. Since older Americans are generally more likely to express positive emotions, and less likely to express negative emotions, compared to younger Americans, we will adjust the measures of financial insecurity according to respondents’ general tendencies toward fear. Controls include income, education, employment status, race, gender, partisanship, and ideology.
The policy and political implications are important but uncertain. Evidence of age-based political conflict in public opinion surveys has been generally slim to date, although there was evidence of backlash against the Affordable Care Act of 2010 as many older Americans were led to believe their own Medicare benefits would be endangered. While elite conflict over old-age entitlements is in a quiet phase, calls for entitlement reform will surely re-emerge soon, due to demographic and budgetary pressures. Conservative demands for “generational equity”—charging that older Americans consume more than their fair share of the federal budget at the expense of younger people—led in the 1980’s to the “greedy geezer” stereotype—the prosperous, hedonistic retiree living a life of luxurious leisure while younger people struggled. Liberals responded with calls for “generational interdependence,” asserting that family and community ties across generations contradict the notion of zero-sum conflicts between them.
Fears of financial insecurity across age groups will surely help shape near-future debates over old-age entitlements and the overall structure of the American social welfare system.

Authors

• Christine L. Day, University of New Orleans

• Lemuel Edward Day, Chapman University

• Muhammad A Karkoutli, Chapman University

• Corinne Wai Yin Tam, Chapman University