Economic Hardship Declines with Age: Reply to Hardy & Hazelrigg

Abstract

Economic hardship declines with age among U.S. adults. The association is substantial, real, and worth acknowledging. Advocates for the welfare of senior Americans might find the fact awkward; Hardy and Hazelrigg (1999, henceforward HH those operating as advocates for the elderly will serve better by doing this as well. Reluctance to accept the fact flows from the false assumption that policy can redistribute economic hardship but not diminish it. The political and moral dilemmas of redistribution suggest the opposite-by understanding why older Americans experience less economic hardship than younger adults, we may find ways to reduce economic hardship for Americans of all ages. The remainder of this reply addresses the issues H&H raise directly or implicitly. We argue that the negative correlation between age and economic hardship is substantial, and is neither artifact nor illusion. Squeezing, stretching, cutting, or disassembling the economic hardship index will not change this basic result. Following persons as they age rather than comparing persons of different ages will not change it. Adjusting for mediators may reduce the association, but that should come as no surprise. Adjusting for income increases it, because seniors have low income but also low economic hardship. Spurning age's effect net of income as false consciousness reveals much about the observer but nothing about the observed. In the end, there is and will be no reason to disbelieve that economic hardship declines with age.