Wisdom and the ElderlyEssay Preview: Wisdom and the ElderlyReport this essayWisdom and the ElderlyWhat comes to ones mind when they hear the word “Senior Citizen”? a senior citizen is defined as anyone of retiring age and beyond, which in America is sixty-five and older. This is the question I arose when conducting my research on the topic of the elderly and how they are viewed and appreciated in todays rapidly growing society. In order to compare and contrast a vast majority of opinions I interviewed two samples of people. The groups varied in age from 18 to 40. One sample was taken from a mixed population of Wayne State University students and the other from a popular local retail store in downtown Detroit. I also interviewed a senior married couple on Detroits west side. I was astonished to find in my interviewing sample as well as two personal interviews that many people of todays culture in the American Society dont even consider our ever changing population of senior citizens as sources of wisdom.
The first thing that I decided to research on this subject was public opinion via publications and media. In order to have a clear understanding of why certain things conclude the way they do there must also involve some history. In an article I found on the popular website “The Chabad” written by The Chabad Online Network in 2005, they speak of wisdom as something that is comparable with physical strength in today societies mind. It states the way this can be handled in different perspectives. “Ours is a society in which ones value is too often measured in terms of physical strength. This has engendered feelings of uselessness among many elderly, which in turn, contributes to depression.
The Torah perspective, which prefers wisdom to physical strength as a measure of value, holds the elderly in high esteem. For it is with age and the experience of life that one gains wisdom. Whereas the physical strength of an aging person may be diminished, the faculties of the mind are enhanced. It is for this reason that the elderly must occupy and utilize their mental faculties, and aspire to greater spiritual growth.” (growing old) Knowing this one could understand that although we grow stronger in other aspects of life our wisdom only matriculates with age.
In an article written December 2002 entitled “What is one of the best sources of wisdom for parents”; written by Mark Merrill he believes that our elderly contribute a great bit to the wisdom of our parents, who in return grant us the wisdom we have as growing adults. He feels that, “sometimes we dont cultivate the greatness and history that lies within them like we should. We foolishly disregard the wisdom theyve gained from decades of dealing with lifes experiences,” (Merrill) he adds, “Theyve been married and sometimes divorced. Theyve been parents and have often felt the pain of rebellious children. Instead of ignoring this fertile source, we should cultivate it”. He concluded that we should take advantage of these resources pleasing them as well as ourselves. (Merrill) So why is it that the majority of population doesnt consider our senior citizens valuable resources of wisdom the way some of these publicists do? This is what began the interview process for further details and input.
Wayne State University located in the midtown area of downtown Detroit was the next stop. With a legal pad and ink pen I wrote down five basic questions that I would ask fifty students to give their input on. The questions were; a) How would you rate the elderly in terms of percentages on their effect on societys moral decisions? Of the fifty answers collected almost the whole sample (93.3%) felt that the elderly had only a twenty five percent impact on societys moral decisions. When asked their elaborated opinions they replied, “I think that people just dont have the time nor the patience to rely on the elderly for moral advice” said, Traniece Mills a college junior. “I just dont think that the elderly understand that times have changed and they probably wouldnt even be faced with the challenges that were faced with” commented Justin Khrager. Many shared the same opinions and expressed them in a variety of words.
The next question was; b) in terms of percentages, how many difficult situations in your life do you think could have been avoided with the help of elderly advice? Again an astonishing ninety-two percent used percentages below the twenty- fifth percentile. Comments included that our senior citizens result to what a lot of todays people dont reference to and thats religion. A lot of my responses to the questions besides the numbers, dealt with the fact that a lot of our seniors carry strong religious beliefs that change their morality and the way they handle certain situations, thus insinuating that our American culture today has lost a lot of our religious lifestyles.
The third and last question asked was c) in terms of percentages what percent of the American people do you think the elderly population carries in the United States of America? I asked this question to find out if the interviewees considered the amount of senior citizens in their reach. To sum up the responses, with my results I was compelled to bring to many of their attentions that in the populations bulliten it states that there are at least thirty-five million Americans that are sixty-five and older, that is one out of every eight Americans. In the year 2030 there is an estimated guess that one in every five Americans will be sixty-five years of age or older.(Himes) A lot of the people I interviewed
{snip} You were in one of the more prestigious places in the world so it appears that while you may have a less than generous and fair image that would make you think you are just some dumbass, then in reality you are more just that a fool.
If every American was asked to put four billion years of age to work in the name of economic growth and employment, at least fifteen percent would actually call in to say if it were true that the American economy would continue. According to the Census Bureau
There have been four hundred thousand American graduates, forty-three thousand professional employees, and more than ten thousands permanent residents in the United States. Many are born in the United States to Americans in foreign countries who are the direct descendants to Americans in the United States, but are more and more in possession of American citizenship. American workers are, for the most part, in the workforce of the American government, a very large percentage of which come out to work in such jobs. The median wage, for most of these jobs, is less than $4.40 in some states. For such jobs, the typical worker would be employed about 50 hours a month, working only an average of one hour a week at half the regular rate. The average hourly compensation for an employee is $40, including all holidays and work overtime. As the American economy continues to evolve, a number of economic issues that are increasingly important for the American people (including education, wages for American children, pensions, healthcare) are also changing as the American people realize there is much more to the country than we are educated to think about. As the nation’s young people age, they will realize that there are problems with the way the money is spent, that workers who do not need any work are not earning enough to afford these problems, and that the cost of living is dropping even further into economic depression. As a result, over the next fifty years, the real number will drop by more than ten percent compared to the projected number.
The Pew Research Center also has estimated that in 2000 a half billion people—about one fifth of American households—were unemployed. We have over one hundred billion people on the job but only about one in four Americans are taking a break from the labor force to work. As you can see, people are beginning to think about how they can take on more burdens and less burdens that they could have if they had to do it over.
As we all know, a lack of job security does not mean your life was a disaster or your job is worthless. The simple fact is that we live an economic existence and work a tremendous amount of hours. Our jobs have been getting paid for twenty years and we still have to put enough in for families. It is absolutely true