The Chaos as I Age
"Confused Executive at Social Security Desk" by exit78 is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.
In this edition of our Members Blog, Institute member Daniel Nardini reflects on the challenges of aging in modern America.
I have now reached 65 years old and will soon be hitting 66. Long ago, I did not know if I would ever reach even the first step of old age. I had real health issues starting when I was 27 years old with high blood pressure. The issues then cascaded over the years with thyroid gland problems, Type II diabetes, a heart condition and then high cholesterol.
What truly saddened my soul was seeing people I knew and loved were all dying — my best friend from high school, my best friend from college, my mother (who died when I was young) and my two cousins Eric and David; neither made it to 60. They were like brothers to me.
It was like my world was being slowly torn away from me.
I had a heart attack at age 53 but miraculously survived it. Somehow, I made it to old age. My wife and I not only got to celebrate my 65th birthday, but also our 23rd wedding anniversary.
When I reached 65, it meant I qualified for Medicare and Social Security. I had never imagined, with all my health issues, I would get this far. I always dreamed that I would always be able to retire. I thought my wife and I would be able to spend our golden years together doing what we loved most; traveling, seeing my sister, and seeing her family.
But this is not what has happened. Sadly, we do not have enough money to retire at this point. The economy is so bad, and my Social Security is so low, that we need another source of income. My wife must continue to work, and the job is slowly wearing her down. She works to take care of people with autism and Down's Syndrome. Her work, while noble, is demanding. There are days she is so tired that she sleeps for up to two days — the entire two days she gets off.
Even with her working at a decent job, and me collecting Social Security, our annual income is still too low. Because of this, we applied for our state's weatherization program and for lowering our utility bills. We qualify for both programs, and where the state can help us, it does. The program for lowering our utility bills is completely under state control, and so we are secure there.
The weatherization program is another issue. This program is partly funded by the federal government. However, because of the government shutdown, and the federal government not properly funding the program in the first place, we may not get the help we need. We are in need of a new central furnace.
We most likely will not get it. I have had to solve this problem by buying space heaters. Since our home is a one floor house, having two or three space heaters may work for this winter.
I watch in disgust as the federal government is trying to deploy both the National Guard and the U.S. military into the cities of this country to "fight crime." Neither the Guard nor the U.S. military are equipped to fight crime and safeguard our urban communities because they do not have the same level of trust or cooperation that the civil police do. Yet the federal government has cut funding for programs that would help the police with community law enforcement and outreach.
The federal government has also cut or is not properly funding things like the weatherization program that helps poor elderly people like me. I see grocery prices keep slowly creeping up, and the federal government does nothing about this, either. I see crime actually going up because no matter what the local and state police do, the federal government does not seem to have their backs.
From my own experience, the medical system is a joke. I have nurse practitioners (I do not get doctors anymore under the current system) telling me to exercise like I am 35 or 45. Nice advice, but at least 20 years too late. And what about the medical bills I get? Personally, I thought the medical system was better 40 years ago than today.
What is worse is that America as a whole is seeing a lot of its institutions being destroyed or changed in many ways, and we are not sure where they may go. The executive branch of the government, which had been growing in leaps and bounds in this century (21st Century), has become more powerful than ever. It now seems to be ruling by fiat rather than through the three branches of government that had been what America was even in the last century (20th Century).
This means that whoever becomes "president" next time will have power that was not there before. I am not sure I will get my Social Security as I get older, and I am not sure if my wife will get her Social Security that she had worked so hard for. What about my Medicare? Will that still be there either? Will the presidency become so powerful that a president can rule by fiat to get rid of Social Security or Medicare, or greatly expand them but not to have the money to fund them?
In too many ways, all of this reminds me of what happened to the American generation that came of age in the 1880s. Born and raised in the 1860s during the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction era, the generation that came of age in the 1880s lived in a more or less stable time period. This dramatically changed in the 1890s to 1900s, when America went through depressions, wars of expansion (the Spanish American War, the Philippine War, military interventions in Central America and the Caribbean, etc.), and then turned to isolationism during the extreme rise of Communism and Fascism. When these things happened, the generation that came of age in the 1880s were too old and not ready for the upheavals that came.
I feel that America is running parallel to what we are seeing today. I am now old for the chaos that is happening today, and I am not prepared for it. Maybe I might see better times, but I am not sure about that.
Daniel Nardini spent 22 years as a newspaper correspondent for Lawndale News and The Fulton Journal. He has published six books, including his eyewitness account of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, The Day China Cried. He is listed as an Illinois author in the Illinois Center for the Book.
The Modern Whig Institute is a 501(c)(3) civic research and education foundation dedicated to the fundamental American principles of representative government, ordered liberty, capitalism, due process and the rule of law.
Opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute or its members.
