Economics and Aging in our Culture
By
Cynthia Rumph

In today’s society, a lot of Americans view the elderly as a burden on society. They feel that financially they are a huge drain making up half the benefit bill on their own. As a culture, have we become selfish towards the elderly? In other countries the elderly is treated like royalty because of their wisdom and knowledge. In my opinion, our culture has become so money hungry that we have forgotten about our elderly and how they have contributed to the society we live in today.
I never pass up an opportunity to help an elderly person, and they're always grateful, and sadly, shocked that someone's paying them some attention. Unfortunately, some people in our society think that the elderly are greedy, unattractive, cranky, and weak. There are some organizations that are even trying to stop the elderly from driving because they drive too slowly and some others are trying to impose curfews for the elderly. Our culture has forgotten that the elderly community already contributed much to society during their prior working years. They contributed to taxes and put in money towards social security to stimulate the economy. At some point everyone grows old and it is the current generation's responsibility to contribute towards the care of the previous one. The elderly still make contributions to society even though they aren't as noticeable as the achievements of younger citizens. My daughter, who is now 18 years old, does not want to go to her grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving because she does not want to be around my parents because they are Ill and have an old person smell. I could not believe my child who has been around my parents all of her life, had the nerve to