Liberty for Older Americans; P. Gresham

Now that I am in my seventies, I have sensed in American life a sort of contempt for the old. I have tried hard to make allowances for any hypersensi tivi ty or personal idiosyncracies. The stark fact of con tempt still remains. Old people are regarded as a sort of nuisance. The prevailing attitude seems to be, ~~Get out of the labor force and leave room Dr. Gresham, President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor, Bethany College, Bethany, West Virginia, here reveals, In part, his plans for those bUSy years ahead. for the young," (~get off the highway and let the young people who wish to go somewhere, go," ~~these things cannot possibly mean anything to you so get out of the way and let us enjoy them." I have noticed a look of irritation and contempt when I must ask some mumbling young person to repeat a sentence because I do not clearly understand what he is saying. When a young person spills his coffee, it is just a mistake; but when I spill mine, it is because I am shaky and the person at hand may be irritated.

The doctors say, ~~At your age you should not undertake this kind of treatment," or an onlooker will say, (~Just look at the old fool trying to be romantic." Once it was said of children, ~~they should be seen and not heard." This same attitude of contempt has now been transferred to older people. The attitude seems to be, ((Shut up, Dad. Things have changed since you had anything to do with them." This attitude does not always 603 604 THE FREEMAN October have a hostile edge. It may be a benign compassion which increases the intensity of the sting. It is easier to face contempt than such an at titude as, ~~Oh, there, there now; of course you feel that way because you are old." A person who is pitied is diminished in self-respect far more than a person who is scorned. Mem bers of one's own family may be swept up in the conventional attitudes toward aging to the extent that they feel a condescending at titude of pity toward anyone past sixty-five. What could be more in furiating to a highly competent sep tuagenarian than to have one say, «How remarkable. You still drive a car?" or Hyou are in your seventies.

Do you still give lectures?" There are times when those of us who are old need sympathy and pity and we do well to accept· it with grace and gratitude; but there are other times when we deserve respect and we resent being exposed to the so-called ~~compassion for the old" which is about the most obnoxious attitude anyone could hold for us. When we are capable and qualified people, we should be regarded as equals where this is appropriate, superiors where we deserve it, as inferiors when the appraisal is just; but in every case, we have the right to stand on our own feet and be honorable, respected people. The young people I know, of course, reflect none of these attitudes, but this is a personal mat ter. My students regard me as a contemporary. The contempt ap pears only in impersonal relation ships. A little bit of common sense will tell any reflective person that many people have a whole new surge of vitality, interest and ability in their sixties. This is particularly true for people in public life, people in busi ness, professions and in finance. The stereotype of the spent old person at sixty is about one hundred per cent wrong. Yet older people face major discrimination when they attempt to market their talents. I have been shocked by my contemporaries in law and medicine who are still ac tive in their professions who say to me, ~(Oh, at your age, I do not think you should take on anything else."

Here are intelligent people who would not give up their own respon sibilities for anything, advising their patients and clients to live by the distorted norms. These norms, however, are chang ing. Once the old people in America were few, but now we are many. With the increase in life expectancy and the interesting configuration of population growth, old people have come to be a powerful political force. Now eleven per cent of the Ameri can people are past sixty-five. As the numbers have been increasing, so have the skills and methods of polit ical clout. Many old people have 1978 LIBERTY FOR OLDER AMERICANS 605 come to be self-conscious exponents of a minority seeking a voice in public affairs. The large associations of people in their sixties or older are as numerous and active as any as sociations in America. Certainly I cannot speak for other people who have lived six or seven decades; but I can speak for myself and, by conversation, insight and study, reflect the attitudes and opin ions as well as the needs and inter ests of many contemporaries. Some of the points that I make here may be widely disputed, as I find myself disputing some of the most vigorous attempts of some aging activists to get special interest legislation ap proved by the Congress. The privilege of differing viewpoints is certainly an earned prerogative of the mature. When I say we want these things, I really mean that these are the things that seem to me paramount for those of us who have reached the sixties and beyond.

Liberty Who has earned the right to per sonal and political freedom more than a person who has lived through six or seven decades? Some people do not like liberty and some have be come so inured to tyranny that it seems comfortable. Taking all this into account, I am still convinced that I speak for my contemporaries when I say we dislike all these so called Hmandatory" programs that affect our lives. We dislike the arbi trary nature of Social Security, but after we have paid the tax, we resent the unfair discrimination with re gard to earning power . We resent the unjust discrimination written into the income tax law which de nies older professionals deductions for activities needed to preserve their professional image and self esteem. Nothing could be more dis tasteful than a law requiring a per son to work, or not to work, until a certain age regardless of what that age might be. What is wanted is freedom to work as long as one wishes and for as long as anybody wishes to employ him.

This same resentment against the loss of individual liberty holds for such things as the consumer move ment as it bears on senior citizens. No self-respecting old person prefers decisions out of Washington to those of his own taste and inclination. It should be my privilege to choose the food I wish to buy. Nothing could infuriate me more completely than to pay taxes, against my will, to employ some pretentious ass to sit at a desk in Washington and tell me what I should purchase. I find the whole idea revolting and many of my contemporaries feel the same way. I keenly resent being told what kind of car I can drive, when I can drive it and how fast, assuming of course that I stay within the bounds of propriety or what is right and 606 THE FREEMAN October decent and safe for everybody in volved. Even more keenly, I resent being told what drugs I am free to pur chase. It is the duty of government to require clear labeling and to vig orously prosecute those who, by force or fraud, misrepresent any product. It is most certainly not the function of the government to forbid me the use of saccharin, for exam ple, when I have been told what is involved in using it. The paternal uPapa knows best" attitude of the Food and Drug Administration is beginning to infuriate all of us who have been around for awhile.

I greatly admire Maggie Kuhn and her astonishing success in or ganizing the Gray Panthers. I could not aw-ee with her more with regard to ((those rotten myths" about old people. We are not all alike. We are not all crotchety, with shriveling brains and diminishing gender. However, I have far less faith in government to solve our problems than has she. I see her pressing for a consumer movement with a new government bureau for consumer advocacy. This will only produce another layer of bureaucracy and consequent inflation and thereby damage all of us who are aging. I long for individual liberty; not benign regimentation that robs me of my livelihood by enlarging the government until I am taxed into penury. I believe that many of my contemporaries feel the same way. The only march against the gov ernment I could lead would be one which bears a placard, ((Get off our backs." We would be perfectly able to solve our own problems if we had some liberty and could get some re lief from inflation.

Inflation, the Enemy of the Old By all odds, the most horrendous threat to old people in America is inflation. The word is poorly under stood by most people, even though it has a very simple origin. The word ((inflation" simply means inflation of the money supply whether it be by printing press or credit. The result of increased supply is higher prices and wages. The reason governments all over the world turn to inflation is that they find it more palatable to increase the available money than to increase taxes when they need additional revenues to pay for ex pensive government projects. At one time, the amount of money governments could make available was limited by some kind of stan dard such as gold or silver. When these standards were abandoned, governments felt free, when pressed, to increase the money supply at will with absolutely ruinous economic consequences in some cases-such as once happened in Germany, Brazil and even France. Inflation is worldwide and has been going on for a long time. The rise in wages, for 1978 LIBERTY FOR OLDER AMERICANS 607 example, is dramatically shown by the nursery rhyme: She shan't have but a penny a day Because she can't work any faster.

Since Elizabethan times, prices and wages have risen consistently even though there were periods of deflation and falling prices. In my own boyhood, the standard wage for help on the ranch was a dollar a day, room and board. There was a com mon chuckle about the Irishman who was so pleased with his new wage of a dollar a day that he boasted, Hlf I work a million days, I'll have a million dollars!" The re cent settlement of the United Mine Workers strike left some of my friends who work in the mines dis appointed because they did not quite get the one hundred dollars a day they were requesting. An increase in wages from a dollar a day to one hundred dollars a day in less than a century suggests the impact of infla tion. Most of this impact has come in the recent past. I have called inflation the greatest enemy of old people because it is a thief that takes away the living earned by a lifetime of hard work.

Economists have made the word ~~in flation" so complicated that many old people do not understand it even though they are robbed by it.What they do understand are the sky rocketing prices that inflation has brought about. Not long ago, a retired couple could go out for dinner for less than ten dollars for a first class meal including refreshments and gratuities. Now the same couple may face a check of twenty-five dol lars minimum to more than one hundred dollars in some places. A car that fairly recently cost four thousand dollars is now selling for eight to ten thousand dollars. A loaf of bread, which once cost ten or fif teen cents is now pushing up toward seventy-five cents or a dollar. Everyone understands the meaning of skyrocketing prices when one's hard-earned retirement income is frozen at a previous level. The re tirement income that once meant a life of ease and plenty now means a life of poverty. and anxiety.

It is time for those of us who are older to understand what powers these rising prices. The principal villain in all inflation is the gov ernment itself, since it is the sole source of the money supply. That money supply gets out of hand be cause the government needs more and more money to carryon more and more projects. Politicians are enamored of voting more money to pay for projects to assist or please people, since this is the way for a politician to get votes when running for public office. Bureaucrats are eager to increase their position and power by developing larger and larger organizations to carryon big ger and more exciting programs.

608 THE FREEMAN October Wartime Spending When an uncontrollable catas trophe such as a war comes along, inflation simply goes wild. Prices and wages rise and the people in government, for very good reasons from their standpoint, do not let them come down when the war is over. People in business or industry likewise look with disfavor on fall ing prices. Nobody likes to see his wage reduced. One round of infla tion follows another and all of us are robbed. The dollar today will purchase just over half what it would have ten years ago. All of us are going broke at an alarming rate of speed. I feel sick at heart when I hear my friends talk about bringing inflation down to six or seven per cent. Think of an old person with his money in a savings bank at five per cent and losing one or two per cent of his capital every year and realizing no true income whatever on his money. To be sure, he has a dollar and five cents at the end of the year, but the purchasing power of that has fallen below his original investment.

Adding to the problem of rising prices' is the additional problem of increasing taxes. Rising prices and increasing taxes are the jaws of the vise in which all of us are caught. These taxes rise because special interest groups ask more and more from government. Alan Meltzer, my cherished colleague who teaches economics at Carnegie Mellon Uni versity, has pointed out that gov ernments grow because benefits are concentrated and costs are diffused. This is a brilliant way of saying that when some special interest group, such as those of us in education, ask for a government subsidy, the sub sidy means a lot to us but does not cost anybody very much when it is spread over the entire nation. The people who have no interest in edu cation are not inspired to mobilize against the program. When those of us who are in edu cation push hard enough, everybody else goes along and we have an addi tional government program. Every body gets into the same kind of an act. Depressed industry demands help; labor unions demand help; minorities demand help; environ mentalists demand help; safety crusaders demand support, the mili tary requires more and more, and those of us who are older get into the act with a series of new requests.

Layer after layer of government bureaucracy is added and the costs of government build to the point where more and more taxes must be levied. Even this will not suffice and the money supply is increased to cover the expense of new projects not covered by tax revenues. The vise thus squeezes the old person until he is forced onto welfare. This, in turn, increases the burgeon ing costs of government.

1978 LIBERTY FOR OLDER AMERICANS 609 Mobilize for Less Government What can we do about this vicious situation? The answer is that we can mobilize for less government instead of more, for less taxes instead of more benefits. There is a rising re volt against the taxes that are rob bing old people of their homes. Everywhere a person turns, he is taxed: he pays sales tax, he pays a tax on gasoline and any number of specific items, he is taxed on most of the services, taxed on the theater, at the restaurant, at the hotel. He pays tax on his property, his travel, his federal income tax which may be almost confiscatory to many old people. In most places, he pays state income tax and sometimes local tax in addition. It is time for us to let the world know that there can be no (( goodies" from the government without taxes that come out of the hides of the people. Many of us are enchanted today with such expensive government programs as come to us from those crusaders who want to protect the environment, the consumers, the minorities, the schools, the cities, the railroads and all of the many services that are proclaimed as highly useful and required of any socially responsible nation. Many of these are good and necessary, but some of them we must learn to do ourselves rather than create expen sive government bureaucracies that will drive old people into ruin and poverty in the next few years unless some remedy is found. Old people, more than anyone else, should know that somebody has to pay into the government before the govern ment can pay anything out to any body.

The great challenge for those of us who are past middle age is that we bring some kind of compelling in fluence to bear against our enemy which is inflation. Since govern ment is the principal factor in volved, we must let our politicians know that we need less government instead of more, less intervention, and less meddling in our lives. We can no longer afford the luxury of being taxed to death on the one hand and inflated to death on the other. We do not look with favor on becom ing destitute wards of the state when we know that the state, itself, is on the way to bankruptcy. We seem to have no satisfactory alter native to an all-out fight against inflation. The best people in the government realize the predicament and may even help our cause. If I could speak to the appropriate people in the government in behalf of my contemporaries, I would say, treat us with respect, give us an opportunity to work and to learn, protect us from crime and, beyond that, as much as possible reduce public expenditures and pursue monetary policies that will reduce inflation. The things we lose by the 610 THE FREEMAN robberies of criminals are nothing in comparison to the amount we lose when we are robbed by our own government. Inflation is an insidi ous form of robbery. Anyone who has seen his fixed income dwindle at such a rate as to threaten his liveli hood has most certainly been robbed.

I am not content to join with my contemporaries in a most pleasant game, mentioned by Dr. Eric Berne, called UAin't it Awful?" We love to gather round the watering places and discuss public affairs. One men tions his taxes and we all say, ttAin't it awful?"; another mentions infla tion and we all say, ttAin't it awful?"; another mentions crime and we all say, HAin't it awful?". And God knows we have fun but we get nowhere. We would do well to give up the game and go to work. Make Your Own Climate I have said that the social and political climate in America is not fair to the aging and this is true. This does not imply that the aging fare any better in Western Europe. For the most part, they are much worse off. There are some cultures where old people are venerated but this, too, is a distortion of justice. I call to my contemporaries to rise above the difficulties that confront old people today and to make some thing of the rest·oftheir lives just as I intend to make something of mine.

The most inspiring story can be told of aging people who earn enough and invest wisely enough to with stand inflation; people who are strong enough to overcome all the stereotypes; people who are public spirited enough to exercise some in fluence on public opinion; people who have put the lie to those who say ttold people can't do anything." All around me are people who have experienced the surge of the sixties and are having the best time of their lives. It is much easier to sit around and complain than it is to perform. Any body who lives in America has suffi cient liberty to make something of his own life. Retired people have the best opportunity of all. They can learn something and thereby dis prove a stereotype; but, even more, enjoy the thrill of discovery. They can create poetry, music, sculpture, history, ax handles, jigsaw puzzles, gardens, cuisine, clothing, gadgets and a whole multitude of things that bring profit as well as joy. People differ in talent. Some are best fitted to lead while others prefer to be good followers. Both are important. Older people have an opportunity to exer cise true leadership in government, community, religion and secular af fairs. There is no time like now for an aging person to make his life count for something. Old age is not merely golden years, but golden op portunity. @ A Decision Against Anne Wortham Meritorious Achievement ANY fair-minded person ought to applaud the recent Supreme Court decision to uphold the California Supreme Court's ruling that Allan P. Bakke should be admitted to the Medical School at the University of California at Davis on the basis that ethnic and racial quotas are uncon stitutional according to the 14th Amendment. But one would have to be quite concerned that, in reversing that part of the California Court's ruling to prohibit the university from establishing future affirmative action programs that take race into account, the Supreme Court did not rule affirmative action unconstitu tional. It was apparently in that spirit that during the following week the Court refused to review After 13 years as an Information researcher for local and national media corporations in New York City, Anne Wortham is now a doctoral candidate in Sociology at Boston College. A number of her arti cles have appeared In The Freeman since 1966.She serves on the board of directors of Citizens for Limited Taxation in Massachusetts.