FOREWORD One out of every five American men 65 years of age or over is a veteran. Within the next twenty-five years, while the aging male population 65 and over itself increases four million, nearly half will be veterans. Then in the succeeding decade the proportion will grow to over two out of every three, making this group in the male population predominantly veteran. Simply from the standpoint of the number of citizens involved, the country's concern with this part of the population will also undergo expansion. While the male population 65 and over is expected to rise from the present 7.2 million to 12.9 million over this 35-year period, veterans in this age group will increase at a more rapid rate, from 1.8 million to 8.6 million. Reflecting a number of factors discussed later in this review, the veteran concerns of the Federal Government are vitally and increasingly affected, whether from the standpoint of citizen responsibility, including tax liability, or as citizen recipients of Government services. Whatever policies may be adopted by the nation to cope with the economic aspects of the veteran population growth in this group, a thorough review of the current situation and trends for the future should help discussion and facilitate planning and decision-making with respect to this vital area of national concern. This study of the position of our aging veterans in the economy of the United States is presented as a contribution to public knowledge and understanding of the situation and problems in this field confronting this increasingly important group of our citizens and our Government. Sumner Gwhitter SUMNER G. WHITTIER Administrator of Veterans Affairs INTRODUCTION One of the important aftermaths of war of vital concern to the American economic system has been the continuing impact on the veteran citizenry of the results of their service in its armed forces. Their prior socio-economic relationships have been violently wrenched or shattered in the war period, and as the economy returns to more normal operation, survivors among them, and their dependents, must readjust to new conditions. The Federal Government, having called them into special service, has accepted the responsibility for assisting them in coping with specific resulting difficulties. More recently a new area of Government concern affecting this group has arisen as a result of technological advances affecting longevity and physical condition. These latter developments are bringing an increasing proportion of a more active population into the advanced ages, giving rise to an expansion in this citizen group of increasing importance to the national economy. The rapid rise in this concern also is occurring at a time when the economy is in a period of increasing productivity, capable of output beyond the more slowly advancing effective demands of its civilian and defense market sectors. In the consequent and continuing search for means of stimulating consumption demand, current and prospective unmet needs have been reviewed, and in this connection increasing attention has been devoted to the economic position of the aging (65 and over) veteran citizen group. The latter's purchasing power has typically been curtailed by declining employability and the effects of inflation on the relatively fixed types of income on which they must depend, and this has come at a time when they have incurred increased requirements for some living cost budgetary items, such as health maintenance and special goods and services which cannot be reduced in line with sharply limited income. This review is devoted to these developments as they concern the veterans 65 and over and the national economy, embracing their basic wants in maintaining a satisfactory standard of living for themselves and their dependents and the means of their obtaining or of others supplying the required goods and services. Chapter I THE AGING VETERAN POPULATION A DYNAMIC GROUPING SIZE AND GROWTH FAMILY STATUS GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS Regional and State distribution HEALTH STATUS Typical chronic health impairments Special economic effects on aging veterans EDUCATION BACKGROUND A DYNAMIC GROUPING The veteran population of the United States 65 years of age and over is a constantly changing group with new members continually added, older members dropping out at various ages and those remaining within the group aging and their economic status changing. Although much of the data, particularly statistical, relating to this portion of the population as of a given census or other survey or estimate time tend to give the impression of a rather fixed group in a static situation, the aging process and concurrent adjustments are, of course, continuous, and the changes that accompany it and the rate at which they occur differ widely with individuals and over a period of time. It has been determined, however, that the rate of change in physical condition and in social and economic adjustments which accompany it greatly accelerates toward and during the age 60 to 69 decade of life. This latter also is a period when economic responsibilities, particularly for family and upbringing of children, decline or have terminated, while economic self-support capacities and opportunities enter a new phase. The conjuncture of these developments points to this period as a logical one in which to end old and start new basic economic contractual arrangements. Within this period of roughly a decade, the specific age 65 for men has been generally adopted to keep large scale programs and commitments with respect to this citizen group within manageable proportions from the standpoint of both financing and administration, particularly in the development of insurance, social security, retirement and similar programs of economic importance. However necessary or desirable from the administrative standpoint, it has been increasingly observed that a sharp shift by the individual on reaching the age 65 to a new economic status and level of income, and the way of life supportable by it, has serious drawbacks from other points of view. Among other difficulties, it involves radical adjustments in a short period of time, creating what has recently been characterized from the social and economic standpoint as "retirement shock." The male retiree is not only separated from his daily working contacts but finds that many of his friends and neighbors are away during the long daytime and not anxious to repeat on-the-job and other conversations for his sole benefit, particularly now that he has nothing much of his own to contribute. He misses such daily contacts and frequently thinks he may find strangers in a retirement community elsewhere more neighborly. Suddenly forced socially inward, introspection too often leads to brooding on his own condition. The retirement ease to which he was looking forward becomes a bore and a cause of further physical and mental disturbance, with economic consequences of importance to himself, his family, his neighbors and his government. Increasingly widespread recognition of the difficulties created for the individual by the rigid determination of his retirement status by the date of the 65th birthday have been under review and some attempts made to introduce more flexibility into the retirement process. As against the administrative advantages of having a specific verifiable factor like the date of birth determine eligibility, alternate or supplementary criteria may provide more economically justifiable bases for qualification. In this connection the most important consequences on the economic situation of the aging veteran arising from the legislative and administrative adoption of the qualifying age compromise are considered later in this study along with the major programs to which they relate. SIZE AND GROWTH OF THE AGING VETERAN POPULATION There are currently 1,800,000 American veterans aged 65 and over, and it is estimated that within another five years this total will reach 2,250,000. Nearly all (over 99 percent) are male veterans of World War I, less than 50,000 of these having served in World War II. Immediate concern of the Veterans Administration within this aging citizen area of its responsibility is, therefore, currently centered primarily in World War I veterans and their surviving dependents. Of the 600,000 male citizens annually reaching the age of 65 and thus introduced in the group of primary interest to agencies concerned with the aging population, currently about half are veterans. The inflow of World War I servicemen into this group in recent years has given rise to a veteran age composition in it currently very different from that of the aging male population 65 and over as a whole. As of 1959 there were about 1,500,000 veterans, who accounted for 22 percent of the approximately 7,000,000 total male population in this age group. TABLE 1 AGE CLASSIFICATION OF TOTAL AND Source: Bureau of the Census and Veterans Administration. The veteran component of this aging group was high in the entering ages, with 40 percent veterans in the age class 65-69 and only 3-5 percent in the over 75 age total. The proportion in each 5 year age class within the aging male population group for veterans as compared with non-veterans in 1959 is presented in Table 2 and Chart I. TABLE 2 AGE CLASSIFICATION OF VETERAN AND |