Sociology Now, Census Update

France (84 percent), Canada (85 percent), or
Australia (100 percent) but higher than Japan
(21 percent).
Today, the number of companies offering
traditional pension plans and other retiree ben-
efits, such as health care, is shrinking rapidly
(Figure 11.4). Within two decades, barely one
in eight retirees will be getting a guaranteed
pension, and health insurance, offered by just
20 percent of companies in 2005, may disap-
pear entirely (Gleckman and Miller, 2005).

Social Isolation

Loneliness is common among all life stages, but
as people age, they are particularly vulnerable
to social isolation, limited regular interaction
with family, friends, and acquaintances (Gold-
scheider, 1990). Children may leave home and
return to visit only occasionally. Retirement closes off work as a
source of interaction. The elderly sometimes move to assisted living
quarters, nursing homes, or retirement communities hundreds or
thousands of miles from home and their long-standing social connec-
tions, and health and financial problems limit their ability to estab-
lish new ones. Family, friends, and spouses or life partners precede
them in death, and negative stereotypes limit their interactions with
the younger generation. Many experience social disengagement, a
gradual withdrawal from feeling connected to their immediate com-
munities or to the wider world. They may stop watching the news or
reading newspapers, and they may keep up only with celebrity gossip.
Because women tend to live longer and spend more time without
marital partners, they tend to feel the impact of social isolation longer
than men. However, they are often more emotionally prepared for it
because many did not work outside the home, or worked only part
time, and therefore spent many hours alone through their lives. When
the AARP conducted a poll of elderly heterosexual couples, 83 per-
cent of the men and 67 percent of the women believed that their
spouses were prepared to live alone (AARP, 2001).

Retirement

Work not only provides money and an opportunity for social interac-
tion, it brings social prestige, personal identity, and a purpose in life.
Its end, therefore, can have a devastating impact. We all have heard
of people who were in good health yet died within months of their retirement. Per-
haps the most poignant story is of cartoonist Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts
comic strip, who died the day he drew Charlie Brown and Snoopy for the last time.
(He had announced his retirement because he had cancer.)
Retirementis also a mark of social status. High-status professionals, managers,
and sales workers are less likely to retire because their jobs are less physically demand-
ing and more flexible than those of laborers, machine operators, and low-status cler-
ical workers (Hayward and Grady, 1990).

AGE AND INEQUALITY 365

50

40

30

20

10

0

18–64 65+ 18–64 65+ 18–64 65+

AGE

PERCENTAGE

White

Black

Hispanic

FIGURE 11.3Individuals Living below 150 Percent of

the Poverty Threshold

'94

'04

EMPLOYERS, WITH 500 OR MORE

WORKERS, OFFERING BENEFITS TO

CURRENT AND FUTURE RETIREES

01020304050

PERCENTAGE

YEAR

43%

40%

28%

20%

Early retirees

Medicare-eligible retirees

FIGURE 11.4Shrinking Benefits

Source:U. S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2003.

Source:From “More Risk—More Reward: Now More than Ever,

Retirees are on Their Own” by Howard Gleckman and Rich

Miller, Business Week,July 25, 2005.