Once again, the elderly are vulnerable
Monday, March 18, 2024
*Victor Martell
Once again, income inequality has been linked to social vulnerability to disasters and the elderly are first in line. The share of residents socially vulnerable to disasters is higher in counties where income inequality is equal to or greater than the national average, according to a U.S. Census Bureau analysis. The Bureau's Community Resilience Estimates for Equity linked social vulnerability and income inequality. This confirms what I have been writing continually, that what millions of retirees receive from Social Security is not enough to cover expenses in today's society.
Nationally, in 2022, 20.6% of people were found to be highly vulnerable to disasters. But in counties where income inequality was at or above the national average, 23.4% were highly vulnerable. In counties with income inequality below the national average, 19.2% of residents were considered highly vulnerable.
We cannot remain silent in the face of this reality. We must unite efforts and force our politicians to form a vanguard at the national level to thank those men and women who have worked their entire lives in this country. Let's not hide our heads like the ostrich and turn a blind or cloudy eye. Please, we all know that our elderly, in almost all cases, live below the poverty line.
I was reading recently that the rate of adults aged 65 and older filing for bankruptcy has more than doubled since 1991, and the share of seniors mired in the U.S. bankruptcy system has quintupled, researchers reported.
Imagine the need that retired seniors go through, when the maximum monthly SSI payment for 2023 was $914 for a single person and $1,371 for a couple. Because we all know that the rent for a one-bedroom apartment has risen to $1,600 or more; and I wonder how a United States government can allow these increases to become a reality? Are we all rich here?
These indices show that we have to force our politicians, from the president down, to demonstrate that the ideology of our traditional parties has not changed and that all citizens in the United States continue to believe that we are living in a democracy and not in a country of rich people and people who don't care about their brother, their neighbor, or our co-workers.
God bless America.
