Ch. 15 Reflection

Politics are huge when it comes to the elderly population in the United States. Hillier and Barrow (2011) state, “When enough older people turn out to vote on a given issue and vote as a bloc, they wield considerable power. Approximately 90 percent of Americans over the age 50 are registered to vote, compared with an overall national figure of less than 75 percent. In all recent elections; older people are more likely to vote than younger ones”. It seems the younger you are, the less likely it is that you are even registered to vote. Most people think, and I am one, that think the elderly are more likely to be conservative and young people are more likely to be liberal. However, this is not true. The elderly are evenly distributed between left wing and right wing as are the younger population. Because the elderly are so involved in politics, there are many interest groups surrounding their important policies. For example, American Association of Retired Persons, The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, National Council of Senior Citizens, National Council on Aging, and many more. These groups have led to many successes for the elderly population like funding for home-delivered meals, friendly visitor, telephone reassurance programs, and Title V employment program. There are many other services made possible because of their activism as well. With the new and bigger generation of older adults coming into the picture, more will soon be done. Hiller and Barrow (2011) state, “The future is a very exciting place. The present responsibility is to understand the ways in which an aging nation and globe will shape that future, economics will shape that future, and both will combine to shape the cultural environment”.