Does being old mean anything anymore?
Thoughts on James Chappel's new book, Golden Years
Kneecap is an Irish-language hip-hop group from Belfast that is very funny—and very political. They started out to make the Irish language relevant and to protest ongoing British rule in the north of Ireland. (The movie Kneecap, now on Netflix, is a fictionalized version of their origin, and it is hilarious. Watch it with subtitles, though, because that Belfast brogue is thick.) Kneecap sings about drugs, mental health, and civil rights.
Possibly because an algorithm interpreted the band’s name as being about orthopedics rather than a preferred disciplinary tactic of the Irish Republican Army, Kneecap’s upcoming US tour showed up on the AARP Kentucky web site.
When I heard about this, I laughed, and then I realized that my husband and I are both eligible to be AARP members, and we both are planning to attend Kneecap’s October show in Chicago.
I just finished James Chappel’s new book Golden Age: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age (Bookshop.org affiliate link), and one of his big points is that our culture has essentially erased any meaning behind terms like old age, senior citizen, or the elderly. Now, the preferred term is older people, who are exactly like younger people except that they have more free time and greater disposable income.
The downside of this, he says, is that we have completely ignored the real needs of the oldest and sickest Americans. We live in a world that has no age cutoff for anything anymore, denying the descent into dementia and disability that looms ahead for a lot of people. The plan? “Just shoot me,” my mother used to say. Chappel says that that’s a common and sad line, an indication that our society is failing people.
Chappel goes into the history of pensions and other old-age assistance. The initial impetus came from freed slaves, and it had a lot of support. Activists argued that pensions were due as reparations for being enslaved, because the enslaved had no opportunity to save money. Given that one argument in favor of slavery was that the enslavers took care of those they enslaved until death (although, in reality, this usually involved having those who could no longer work move to a cabin in the woods where they would die of starvation and loneliness), the concept resonated with the general public more than you might think.
At the same time, a movement emerged to give old-age pensions as a financial lifeline to white men displaced by the new industrial automation that become commonplace in the early 20th century. By the time that Franklin Roosevelt introduced Social Security, the idea of retirement benefits based on income became formal. White men, who had the most stable and highest earning jobs, became the people who received the largest Social Security checks.
And so, retirement patterns reinforced overall social structures rather than challenging them.
The next big change in American retirement was the introduction of Medicare in 1965 to cover doctor and hospital care. Following World War II, employers provided health insurance, leaving older people in the lurch, so a retiree-only plan seemed logical. Many people fervently hoped that Medicare would eventually be available for all, but that didn’t happen.
Age discrimination in employment was outlawed in 1967. And while age discrimination still happens, all the time, it has been reduced by enough that it’s not unusual for people to work in their late 60s and early 70s, whether due to need or to desire. After all, some jobs are interesting!
Finally, Chappel shows how the AARP changed perceptions of aging. Some of it was the organization’s desire to grow, so it defined old age downward and then changed its name from the American Association of Retired Persons to a set of initials to bring in younger members. No longer a last gasp before the grave, becoming older now means receiving a shower of discounts on travel and entertainment, no retirement necessary.
In 2025, you can be in your 50s, 60s, and 70s, and work interesting jobs, ride mountain bikes, and go to Irish-language hip-hop concerts. But what happens when the party ends and health declines? Diet and exercise only go so far, and Medicare doesn’t cover long-term care or services to meet activities of daily living.
You will not be working at an interesting job, riding mountain bikes, and going to Irish-language hip-hop concerts when you are 90. I’m sorry to tell you this, but are not going to be that healthy no matter what you do.
Family members, usually daughters, step in to provide care, whether they have the skills or the resources to do so (and whether or not the elderly relative is co-operative). Assisted living is available for people who can afford it, but it is expensive and an admission that funtime is over. Home health care is another option, but like childcare, it is very expensive for the people paying for it while paying far less than an adequate salary to the people doing the work. Nursing homes are better than they used to be, but that’s not saying much, even for people who can afford to pay their own way.
And because nursing homes are so expensive, many middle-class retirees run out of savings and end up relying on Medicaid to cover the cost.
I have no idea what the answer is. Just shoot me.
In the meantime, I’m going to work and exercise and go to lots of concerts, including those put on by Irish-language hip-hop groups. Here’s Kneecap, with Grian Chatten of Fontaines DC.
What do you think? What should we do? Let us know in the comments.
You know, reading this, it occurred to me that this collective denial of the realities of aging & the fact that most of us WILL require care & assistance at some point in time is exactly why it's so possible for my 87 and 88 yr old parents to say "we're staying in this house til we die," even though the house in question is a split level in a rural area and 1 already has trouble w mobility & the other, cognitive challenges (denied, of course). When it's not "normal" or "typical" or "accepted" for people to both need and receive help, of course people live in denial about ever needing it. Personally, I think this denial is hurting us all.