Offering Simplistic Solutions to Real Problems of an Aging Society

With the headline “Older Americans Are Hoarding America’s Potential,” a recent New York Times piece by Yale professor Samuel Moyn has, understandably, attracted a lot of attention in my networks.

Much of the attention is critical, and I share some of those criticisms. But let’s recognize that Moyn identifies real problems.

He writes, for example, that older Americans deserve a better-funded long-term care system. I agree. Our long-term care and healthcare systems (or lack of systems) incentivize older people to hold on to wealth in fear that a medical emergency could wipe them out financially.

Unfortunately, Moyn’s piece offers simplistic solutions to the problems he identifies. For example:

➡️Voting: He writes that older Americans are overrepresented in elections, and they contribute a disproportionate amount of campaign donations.

I agree that younger Americans should have more influence in politics. Moyn focuses on reducing the impact of older voters and the older politicians they often vote for.

Instead, we should fix a political landscape that leaves younger voters feeling like it’s not worth voting at all.

➡️ Housing: Moyn suggests “a progressive tax on older homeowners to incentivize them to downsize rather than retain.”

I think many older adults would downsize without a nudge — if there was somewhere to go.

But we’re building the wrong type of housing. Very little new stock is all-age accessible. We build tall townhouses with no elevators because developers claim they’re too expensive. New housing for young adults often includes large HOA fees.

In the end, the options for older adults who want to move are impractical or unaffordable — or both.

➡️ Workforce: Citing a lack of opportunity for young and middle-aged workers, Moyn suggests we reinstitute mandatory retirement.

But forcing out older adults who want to work makes no sense given current demographic realities.

Immigration levels are falling dramatically. The number of 18-year-olds is plummeting as well. Even if the government incentivizes larger families, that won’t make a difference for 20 years, if at all.

Given these trends, we should be asking “Where will the workers come from?” The answer is older adults. We need to expand, not reduce, the age range of our workforce.

I also have an issue with the piece more broadly: using the word “gerontocracy.” It’s sensationalist, fanning the flames of ageist ideas which will not solve the real problems Moyn outlines.

His piece sends the message — perhaps not intentionally — that our problem is too many old people with too much influence. Too many old people at work, too many old people in single-family homes, and too many old people in the political process, from voters to elected leaders.

He doesn’t go so far as to ask, “How can we reduce the number of old people in society?”

But his line of reasoning may lead others there. And that’s alarming.