Creating a Country That Values Aging

8 minute read.

What does it mean to value aging? As Peter Kaldes, President and CEO of Next50 puts it, “If you value something, it means you prioritize it.” Throughout his career, Kaldes has advocated for prioritizing older Americans and addressing the challenges they face; from his recent role as CEO of the American Society on Aging to serving in the White House as an economic policy advisor to President Barack Obama.

Today, with Next50, a foundation that invests in efforts to support our aging population, Kaldes is focused on supporting low-income and middle-income older adults, especially those in historically marginalized populations. “We focus on basically answering a key question, which is, how do you make it less expensive to get old in this country?” says Kaldes.

AGING: THE OVERLOOKED CAMPAIGN TOPIC

With less than three weeks until the presidential election, some older voters may still be waiting to hear more from the candidates about how they’ll help America’s aging population, which is growing rapidly by the day. So far, the topic hasn’t received much attention, but some details have trickled out.

On the Republican side, there’s been talk about supporting caregivers and the “sandwich generation.” On the Democrat side, a similar theme has emerged, with Vice President Harris proposing that Medicare cover the costs of home health care. “When you just compare it at a super high level, the platforms are actually quite similar when it comes to the ideas related to aging. But there’s also the opportunity to do more,” says Kaldes.

Doing more could mean addressing the elephant in the room, AKA, Social Security. As Kaldes shares, it’s such a volatile issue, that lawmakers won’t likely take it up until younger voters apply more pressure. “I think what needs to happen is it needs to be an issue for younger generations and younger voters,” he says. “Their future is at stake because this thing will not exist if they don’t start asking for it to exist.”

MAKING IT EASIER TO AGE IN PLACE

While Americans wait for the government to place more of a value on aging well, organizations, like Next50 are filling the gap. Its focus is threefold – helping people to age in place, advancing digital equity and ending ageism.

According to a recent survey, 77% of Americans over the age of 50 would prefer to age in place. One of the stumbling blocks to doing so is cost. As Kaldes explains, Next50 works to make aging in place less expensive by partnering with nonprofits to provide in-home services, making sure individuals know about programs and rebates offered to do things like cutting home heating and cooling costs and, more recently, a new program that will provide income-constrained older adults with a form of guaranteed income to help prevent homelessness.

ADVANCING DIGITAL EQUITY

Technology is an essential part of our daily lives, and that holds true for older Americans, too. “There are different kinds of older adults who use technology [for a variety of purposes], and we have to cater to all the diversity that exists,” says Kaldes. “It’s not just work. It’s telehealth, it’s shopping, it’s banking, it’s the fact that you can’t communicate without it.”

Promoting digital equity includes the more obvious effort of training older Americans on how to use tech, as well as investing in a growing need: Protecting older Americans from fraud. According to the FBI, elder fraud reports to the Bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center increased by 14% in 2023, compared to the year prior. “That’s another side to digital equity —  provide them [with] the resources to not only protect their assets, but also for all of us, not just older Americans] to get the kind of training for the constant evolution in scams and fraud that has been happening,” says Kaldes.

ENDING AGEISM

Ageism may be a lesser-known form of discrimination, where people are treated differently based on their age, but that doesn’t mean it’s not pervasive. Recent research from the Society for Human Resource Management shows that 26% of U.S. workers over the age of 50 say they’ve been the target of age-related remarks in the workplace during a six month span.

What many workplaces — and countries — are just starting to understand, Kaldes notes, is that the benefits of having older individuals as part of the workforce are many. “There are studies that have demonstrated it’s actually not as expensive as you might think to retain and retrain older workers. If they’re over 65 they don’t need your [company’s] health insurance. Two, they have institutional knowledge and can do things more efficiently. Three, they don’t want to work full-time. They probably want to work part-time and come up with some sort of different work regiment.”

We need to find ways to embrace and keep older workers in the workforce. A landmark economic study by the Alliance shows between 2024 and 2030, employers will need to replace between 10.8 million and 14.8 million employees who are expected to retire, which will dampen productivity and GDP.

EMPOWERING SENIORS THROUGH FINANCIAL LITERACY

At the core of helping aging Americans is making sure their future is financially secure. A big part of that is making sure they are financially literate. “What’s been really exciting, particularly in the nonprofit sector, is seeing organizations create financial literacy programming for older adults,” shares Kaldes.

For example, the Colorado-based nonprofit Savings Collaborative is aiding those who have gotten a late start in saving for their non-working years. It helps clients make sure they’re staying on track with their spending, saving, and investing. “The notion that you are a lost cause if you haven’t been saving…is actually, I think, a mistake. People have plenty of opportunities to invest for their future. It may be in smaller quantities, but there’s a way to do it for folks, regardless of whether they have a 401(k) or not,” says Kaldes.