THE ECONOMIC AGONY OF AGING

Ask anyone and there’s no doubt that they’d agree that, after a lifetime of working, aging folk ought to be able to live the rest of their lives in dignity and free of the specter of economic hardship.

In this country, though, it’s simply not the case that the retired—or those on the cusp of doing so— are guaranteed a right to standard of living that promotes and protects human dignity.

After years of working, caring, and contributing, millions remain chased by the economic ghost of poverty.

For millions, retirement is not something to be embraced but something to be feared.

For millions, best to put it off as long as possible.

For millions, it’ll turn out to be the last phase in a lifelong battle with economic precarity.

And, unsurprisingly, this is especially true for Black folk.

POVERTY AMONGST OLDER AMERICANS

The Census Bureau reports two different metrics of poverty— the official measure that we often hear and read about, and another measure that’s known as the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM).

The Census Bureau’s official U.S. poverty index is annually adjusted for inflation and establishes poverty thresholds that account for such factors as household size, presence and number of children, and age. A household’s pre-tax income is compared to the relevant threshold and, should the household’s income fall below that threshold, it’s classified as “poor.”

In 2021, the latest year for which comprehensive Census data is available, the official poverty threshold for seniors—those aged 65 and over—was pegged at $14,097.

Of the 56.2 million persons aged 65+, 10.3% of them—5.8 million— had incomes that placed them below the $14,097 threshold.

Now, if you’re anything like me, you’re probably thinking something, like:

“Damn! That $14,000 threshold is low AF.”

“MOFOS really be believing that the 65+ crew have to be earning that kind of meager scratch in order to be classified as poor?”

If that $14 grand threshold is too low, then one obvious thing that could be done is to raise it.

Raise that threshold, then, and you get a much more realistic picture of the percentage and number of people in the 65+ crew who are caught up in poverty.

Thus, consider this:

• If the poverty threshold was increased $14,097 to $17621 per annum —or upped by 25%— we’d be classifying 8.5 million people in poverty and the poverty rate for seniors would be 15.1% instead of 10.3%.

• If the threshold was raised by 50%, from the current $14,097 to $21,145, the number of seniors counted as poor would balloon to 11 million and the poverty rate clock in at 19.6% instead of the current 10.3%.

• If the threshold was doubled from $14,097 to $28,194, the number of seniors in poverty would zoom to 16.5 million and their poverty rate would be 30% (29.4%) instead of the current 10.3%.

So, the deal is this: The reality is that we’re talking about tens of millions of folk 65 and over who are struggling to survive. And, mind you, that’s using multiples of the abysmally low official poverty threshold of $14, 097.

As mentioned above, the Census Bureau has developed an alternative measure of poverty known as the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). The SPM’s intent is to present a more accurate depiction of the extent of poverty, and it seeks to do that by totaling up household income, adding any the value of any in-kind-benefits the household may be receiving (e.g., food stamps) and then subtracting out the dollars spent on “non-discretionary” stuff like taxes, work related expenses, and out-of-pocket medical expenses. Various thresholds are established based on a broad measure that includes such necessary expenditures as food, clothing, shelter, and utilities (FCSU). The SPM poverty thresholds are based on updated expenditure data and adjusted for differences in geographical location.

THE PRECARIOUS PLIGHT OF OLDER BLACKS

The Supplemental Poverty Measure yields a particularly bracing insight into poverty amongst the 65 and over crew and, as mentioned from the jump, it—the SPM— reveals that the economic plight of Black seniors is especially precarious.

Just how bracing? Just how precarious?

Well, for starters, a recent study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation finds that:

• The supplemental poverty rate is substantially higher than the official rate that we’re used to hearing about, 14.1% and 9.2%, respectively.

• Judged by the SPM, one out of every five Black men—compared to 1 out of every ten White men (9.6%)— is eking out a living below the poverty line. The official poverty figures, in contrast, are 16.2% and 5.6% of Black and White seniors, respectively.

• The plight of older Black women is especially precarious: The SPM poverty rate for Black women is a whopping 25.2%. The income of one of every four Black women falls below the SPM poverty threshold. This rate is higher than the SPM poverty rates for any other group. What’s more, the relative figures and plight of Black seniors are even more arresting when one totals up and counts as “poor” the number of folk whose income is below 200% of the SPM poverty threshold. Here’s some of what you get when you count as “poor” all those whose income is below twice the relevant SPM threshold:

• 32% and 55% of older White and Black males have incomes that are below twice the SPM poverty threshold.

But the real killa stat, not surprisingly, is on the SPM poverty rate of older Women, especially aging Black women:

• 41% of White women aged 65+ had incomes that fell below twice the SPM poverty threshold. But as bad as this is—and it’s bad— the horrific figure for Black women takes the cake: Among Black women aged 65 and above, more than 6 out of every ten—64.1%—were found to have incomes beneath twice the SPM poverty level.

WRAPPING UP

Over the past four or five decades, there’s been a dramatic decline in poverty rates amongst those aged 65 and over.

And, equally important, there’s no denying that much of that decline is attributable to Social Security— the very program, by the way, that some conservatives would like to see abolished or privatized.

But despite the long term decline in poverty among the 65+ crew, the fact of the matter is that millions of our older siblings are trapped in an economic quagmire. The fact remains that millions are haunted and chased by the ghost of economic security. The fact remains that millions, economically speaking, are aging into agony.

And this is especially true for “us", and particularly so for Black women.

All of this says tons about the nation in which we live.

It’s further confirmation, for those we need it, that the struggle for economic security is far from complete.

It’s further confirmation that we are in dire need of economic policies that respect and promote human rights, including the right to an income that enables us to thrive economically.

It’s further confirmation that the failure to judge our economic policies through the lens of human rights is particularly injurious to the well-being of Black women.

It’s further confirmation that aging in the United States can be terrifying.

It’s further confirmation that, ultimately, we need to be a people that covenant to do what is necessary to mutually protect each other from economic precarity and to promote our individual and collective thriving.

Short of that, it’s likely that millions will continue to experience aging as economic agony.