Post # 4

I have found this fascinating article and wanted to share it with the class, it relates to the way we define age (we talked in class about biological, social, and psychological age) and demonstrates how men and women have different fear as they get older. The study found that women are more concerned with fading beauty and fear of losing their looks as they get older, while men tend to worry more about sex and relationships. It was interesting to learn that even though both men and women had the similar concerns about the retirement in general (for instance, the prospect of losing their health, fitness), at the same time the number one concern was different. As we had talked in one of the previous classes society places more pressure on the way women look and dress, moreover being old is not popular and major cosmetics corporations are trying to return the so called "beauty", which I do not believe to exist in the first place. If women just spend sometime looking at the photos of the most beautiful women from all over the world they would see that the beauty standards are so different!

Questions for the class:

1) Were you surprised with the research findings?

2) Do you think that women are too stressed about their biological age?

3) Do you think women should conform to or confront their ‘social age’?

Here is the link to the article:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Women-fear-losing-beauty-and-men-sex/Article1-750365.aspx

Blog # 3

Today we discussed different family theories and the division of families into open, closed, and random families made me think which one I am from. Since I was raised in a single-parent family I feel like it is rather difficult to identify how closed my family was, I remember always eating with my mom at the same time, but it was not because of the rules that she established, but because I never cooked and always waited for my mother to come home from work and to make dinner for me (it is very typical for Russian children). We definitely did not air dirty laundry in public, and my mom tends not to share any family plans with the relatives or neighbors. For instance, she did not tell anyone that I was applying for master’s program in the U.S. and that I got accepted until the day I landed in Ohio. At the same time she was pretty open to me bringing friends home and when we ate we did not have assigned seats at the dining table, we very often ate and watched TV at the same time.

The article that I found talks about the advantages and disadvantages of open and closed families, while stating that the extremes indicate a family dysfunction. I really liked the example of the religion that the family follows that is not represented in the community. I remember my friend telling me that she had weird neighbors – a family from Iran who lead a very isolated life and seem not social, but after reading this article I understand that part of the reason why this family was keeping a distance was the religion. I can only imagine how hard it is to be the only Muslim family in the White upper-middle class community. I think it is important to take the culture into consideration, I think Americans in general are much more open towards conversation than Russians are, especially when it comes to sharing the plans and career goals. I do not know what the reasons are but may be Russians are just much more superstitious and are afraid to endanger the success of the plans. The article made a valid point that too open family is not a solution either because when there are too many people coming and going, too much information and resources, children in these families are often lacking a clear set of rules and values. From my point of view children from such families would have trouble developing their own identities because they keep receiving mixed messages from different directions. Therefore, I believe the family should be balance, there is nothing wrong with a clear set of rules but at the same time the child should have the ability to explore the world outside home.

Do you think that your family was too open, too closed or balanced?

What do you think is more dangerous for the child development – too open or too closed families?

Here is the link to the article that was discussed above:

http://www.momlogic.com/2009/10/is_your_family_too_closed_or_too_open.php

Blog # 2

During the last class session we discussed different social programs that are either age-based or income-based, for instance Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Medicare, Medicaid, Terminal and Whole Life Insurance. I agree with the classmates who said that people are abusing the system and collect benefits that they are not eligible for, that is why so many programs that were created to eliminate poverty and help the most needy citizens have a bad reputation nowadays. The article that I found on-line gives an example of a truly needed person Bill Ricker – a former pastor who lives in an aging trailer and completely relies on Social Security benefits that constitute $12,036. Of course comparing to the Russian standard of living it is more than enough money to live on, but in the U.S. where the services are so expensive this money is not enough, especially for an elder man who needs prescribed medications, and whose heating bills are outrageous ($3,200 per year on kerosene to keep the trailer warm). He became disabled and therefore cannot work and has to fully depend on his Social Security benefits that go towards paying for heating costs, rent for the lot where his trailer sits and basic costs of living. The social programs were created for people like Bill Ricker, but unfortunately they are abused on regular basis. The article makes an excellent point that so many people claim themselves disabled to work but they are not disabled to use drugs, to break into the houses and steal or to waste money on gambling and alcohol.

During the time of the economic recession there is a growing number of proponents of decreasing the Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income. Moreover people are worried that there will be not enough funds in a couple of decades to pay the benefits to people who are working now, but at the same time according to the CNN article, Social Security is paid to deceased beneficiaries. According to the general estimates the agency has made $40.3 million in erroneous payments. While the politicians keep talking about the fund that would run out of money it was estimated that nearly 2,000 deceased beneficiaries were receiving benefits for months or even years after the agency had been notified of their deaths. The audit also found that of the approximately 2.8 million death reports about 14,000 - or one in every 200 deaths - are incorrectly entered into its Death Master File which leads to the erroneous payments. From my point of view it is important to fix the system first and then talk about the decrease of the benefits because there are people out there who truly depend on these programs and who deserve every penny they get!

Here are the links to the two articles that I found:

http://www.sunjournal.com/our-view/story/1089856

http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/07/pf/social_security_benefits_deceased/

Blog Post # 1

The topic that was discussed this Tuesday has a direct impact on every student in the class no matter what age, race or SES he or she is. Even though young people tend not to think about aging, retirement is inescapable and those who plan ahead spend the last decades of their lives financially secure, the question is how well modern youth saves. From my other class I have learned that the US actually has a negative saving rate now which means that Americans spend more than they make. When I first came to the US I was amazed how much people loved shopping and going out, I have never eaten out while growing up; my mother would always make home-made meals because it was cheaper, but here in the US the market encourages consumers to buy the latest technology and to try new products. Moreover the sales encourage Americans to buy things that they do not necessarily need right now but they purchase them anyways because they are cheap. In Russia there are almost no sales and even when there is a sign “sale” it usually means that the salespeople just increased the old price tags and put a fake sale tag to create an illusion that you buy something cheaper. It was interesting to hear in the class that some students are already thinking about the future and saving their money. From my point of view Russians do save money more than Americans, but at the same time we do not put money in the banks because of the lack of trust in the financial institutions, which has a constant negative impact on our economy. Moreover Russian standard of living and the wage level are much lower than American ones. Also it is much harder for low income families to save money because they need to survive and meet the basic needs of the family, while middle class workers can easily save money by not buying luxuries. Starbucks coffee obsession in the US is a total mystery for me, but people my age spend hundreds of dollars a month on these unnecessary products and then complain that they have a zero balance.

Today the elder Americans rely heavily on Social Security, but originally when the program was passed it was never intended to be the ONLY income for elder people. From Policy and Programs in Gerontology class, I have learned that social security was planned as only one leg of a three-legged stool: social security, private pension programs, and money individual saves over the course of life. According to the Social Security Administration (http://www.adap.net/socialsecurity/The%20Future%20of%20Social%20Security.pdf) for 20% of elder Americans social security constitutes 100% of their income, for 33% of elders – 90% or more, for 65% of elders – 50% or more. Therefore if people do not start saving and investing money, and keep relying only on social security there is a high chance that by 2042 social security trust fund will be exhausted because of the changing demographics. Since there is an increase in aging population, the number of workers per beneficiary is declining, for example, in 1960 – 5.1 workers per beneficiary, in 2003 – 3.3 workers, and in 2011 – 2.1 workers. Statistics show that 79 million “baby boomers” already started retiring in 2008, and in about 30 years, there will be nearly twice as many older Americans as there are today. If we do not make changes in social security in the future it would not be able to meet its financial obligations.

One of the main proposals is to increase the retirement age for the full social security benefit since Americans live longer. Today the full retirement age is 66, it used to be 65, and people who were born after 1960 would retire at the age of 67. In Russia retirement age is much lower than in most European countries and constitutes 55 years for women and 60 for men. The retirement age depends on the life expectancy and differs from country to country. Since the average life expectancy for Russian men is about 63 years, raising the retirement age would mean that many of them would not live until the retirement. Another important factor that should be taken into consideration when discussing the raise of the retirement age is the SES because it largely defines the longevity of life. Access to high quality medicine, good nutrition, ability to pay for the sport activities are the major reasons of the increased longevity of life in the US, but people who are poor or live below poverty level do not have these opportunities. I do not think that the statement “Americans live longer now” is true for ALL people. If we increase the age of retirement it will affect people from all socio-economic classes but would have an especially negative effect on lower class families.

Questions for the class:

1) Do you consider Social Security as your ONLY income after retirement?

2) Do you agree that the retirement age should be increased?

3) What effect (if any) would the changes in Social Security have on the poorest American citizens?