magazine bestowed the honor of “sexiest man alive” on Harry Hamlin, age 36.
In 2004, the honor went to Jude Law, age 32; in 2005 to Mathew McConaughey,
age 36.Age and Poverty
In 1959, 33 percent of elderly men and 38 percent of elderly women in the United
States were living below the poverty level. Today, seniors as a whole are more afflu-
ent than ever before, in wealth (accumulated net worth) if not in annual income. In
2000, elderly households had a median net worth of $108,885, while households of
those under 35 had a much smaller median net worth of $7,240. Of elderly people,
81 percent owned their own home in 2000, as opposed 68 percent of all householders
(U.S. Census Bureau, 2001).
However, many elderly people lack the savings, investments, or pensions to be
self-supporting after retirement. Most rich nations provide extensive benefits to their
elderly populations, but the United States does not. Consequently, the poverty rate
for senior citizens in the United States is about 10 percent—much higher than it is in
other rich nations. The old are both richer and poorer than they ever have been.
In old age, inequalities based on race and gender are magnified. While they are age
18 to 64, African Americans and Hispanics are twice as likely to fall beneath the poverty
threshold as their White non-Hispanic counterparts, but in the over 65 age group, they
arethreetimes as likely. Elderly women of all races are more likely to be poor than el-
derly men, and three times more likely when they reach the “oldest old” life stage of
85 and up (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). When disenfranchised gender and racial
categories are combined, the income inequality becomes more pronounced: 27.4 per-
cent of elderly African American women and 21.7 percent of elderly Hispanic women
are poor.
But these are only the percentages that fall below the official poverty threshold,
$8,825 for an individual over age 65, and $11,133 for a couple (U.S. Census Bureau,
2001). A much higher proportion of elderly people are below 150 percent of the
poverty threshold: nearly half of African American and Hispanic and a quarter of
White individuals (Figure 11.3).
TheSocial Securityprogram, begun in 1940, improved the financial situation of
the elderly. Retired workers receive a monthly stipend based on how much they con-
tributed to the program through their lives. Those who worked consistently through-
out adulthood (for employers who participate) might receive $2,000 per month, but
gaps in employment history decrease the stipend to a few hundred dollars.
However, people who worked consistently throughout adulthood often receive
pensions or other retirement provisions and so are less dependent on Social Security
as their primary source of income. People who were poor during their adulthoods,
unemployed, or working in low-income jobs that don’t partic-
ipate in the program, will receive the lowest stipends, even
though they need the money the most. In old age, the rich get
richer and the poor get poorer.
Another source of elderly income is the pension, a monthly
stipend for those who have worked for the same employer for a
specified number of years. The frequent job and career changes
of contemporary workers mean that few stay in one place long
enough to acquire a pension, and even when they do, the United
States has one of the lowest pension benefits of all wealthy coun-
tries. Palme (1990, p. 93) calculated how well a pension replaces
the worker’s wage. In the United States, the minimum pension
replaced only 53 percent of the worker’s salary, far lower than364 CHAPTER 11AGE: FROM YOUNG TO OLD
Age inequalities are often
compounded by inequalities of
class, race, and gender. n