Poor, less-educated Americans, especially women, are increasingly facing the prospect of growing old alone as overall marriage rates decline and financial pressures mount, researchers say.
Rising educational inequality and looming trouble with Social Security and Medicare could contribute to feelings of isolation and loneliness, said Rosemary Hopcroft, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Marriage without divorce, long regarded as a cornerstone of financial and emotional stability, has become “concentrated among better-educated, better-off people,” she said.
“The women and men who don’t get married tend to be of lower socioeconomic status. … It’s becoming more and more a privilege for a few,” she said.
Women statistically live longer than men, and the poorer and less educated become vulnerable without the support of marriage and family.
“Well, part of the problem is these women are more likely to be less-educated women. So, you know, it’s the problems that face less-educated people. There are fewer jobs. They’re less well-paid,” Ms. Hopcroft said. “So, I mean, this is part of the issue — that marriage is becoming concentrated among better-off people.”
Mary, 64, a San Diego native, has experienced this firsthand as a full-time doula without a college degree. After several lengthy relationships that never led to marriage, she considered retiring but never made enough money to feel she could.
She said she is “doomed” to work as long as possible. “I can’t live without insurance,” Mary said.
“I have to take care of myself. Fortunately, my job isn’t terribly high-stress, but it’s not enough in California for me to sit back and relax anytime soon,” she said.
She said she didn’t mind being single but would have enjoyed some of the benefits of having a husband.
“The extra income would have been nice,” said Mary, who cares for her widowed mother.
Mary’s story isn’t uncommon. As marriage rates decline among all groups, the number of single, older adults facing financial insecurity will rise.
“Low-income single women have never been especially well off,” said Patrick Brown, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and institutional aid to support them in old age is starting to crumble.
In 1970, more than three-quarters of young adults with only a high school degree were married, he said. Today, that figure is about one-third.
This shift is more than a cultural trend and has profound financial ramifications, he said. Housing unaffordability is primarily to blame.
“High housing costs disproportionately penalize young couples and new parents with children,” said Mr. Brown, whose work with the Life and Family Initiative aims to develop a pro-family economic plan.
Mr. Brown said housing affordability is directly linked to family formation, with higher home prices making it difficult for lower-income Americans to afford stability and family.
A $10,000 increase in a home’s price led to a 5% increase in fertility rates among homeowners. Among renters, who are more likely to have lower incomes, the price rise led to a 2.4% decrease in the fertility rate, Mr. Brown said.
Building assets promotes stability and helps marriages survive and thrive, according to research by the American Economic Journal.
A paper by researchers Jeanne Lafortune and Corinne Low shows that policies such as no-fault divorce make wealth a more significant factor in marriage.
Changes have reduced the economic advantages of marriage for working-class couples. Wealthier couples benefit from homeownership and other assets, which provide stability and protect the lower-earning spouse, even when divorce is more accessible.
Joshua McCabe, director of social policy at the Niskanen Center, said older and single poor people will soon encounter the stark realities of failing health.
“So, a lot of people talk about child care and the absence of a spouse, but I think for the elderly population, the big ones I think about are health programs. As you get older, your health and your mobility decline,” Mr. McCabe said. “You may have access to things like home health aides and other sorts of health supports, but even those are going to assume there’s some amount of kinship care or family care involved.”
Looming shortfalls in Social Security and Medicare threaten to compound the difficulties. These programs serve as lifelines for older Americans, especially those without a spouse’s financial support.
Social Security’s combined trust fund is expected to be depleted by 2035 unless policymakers balance the program’s costs and revenue, according to data from the Urban Institute. Mr. Brown said raising taxes would help ease the problem in “the medium term.”
If the trust fund is depleted, Social Security would be able to pay only 83% of scheduled benefits, spelling trouble for the 81 million retirees and people with disabilities who rely on it, according to data from the Urban Institute.
Poor people would be hit hardest. The Urban Institute this year projected a 50% increase in the number of Social Security beneficiaries living in poverty.
Medicare faces similar challenges. A recent report from Medicare trustees indicates that the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund, which underpins Medicare, is expected to be depleted by 2036.
After that, Medicare would be able to pay only partial benefits for hospital stays, nursing home visits and home health care, leaving millions of seniors with increased out-of-pocket costs.
John Cuddeback, a philosophy professor at Christendom College who writes extensively on home life and family on his blog “LifeCraft,” suggests looking at a tradition that once supported unmarried people: living with extended family.
“Once upon a time, it was normal for an unmarried sibling to live with a family of a sibling,” he told The Washington Times. “‘Auntie So-and-So,’ especially an unmarried woman, was often a very important part of the household.”
Mr. Cuddeback said society should reconsider the role of unmarried women in extended families. They might find renewed purpose and connection in a household arrangement.
“Maybe there’s more reason than we realize to live in a household as an aunt,” he said. “It gives the children someplace to go and have a rich relationship.”
“Meaningful relationships are just harder to find as, you know, you age and start having other goals,” said Georganna, 25, an unmarried native of Nashville, Tennessee, who works in film production. She told The Times she feels an intense reliance on her family.
“If you’re a single adult, basically your means for meeting people who just want to be in your life because they like you get smaller and smaller,” she said.
Without the marriage and family framework, many single women rely on professional or intellectual circles for companionship. Georganna said these groups become less available with age. The connections often lack the depth and long-term investment of family relationships, leaving many single adults without a reliable support system.
“And what do you do, as an older single woman?” she asked.
Indeed, Ginevra Floridi, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh, and Albert Esteve of the Center of Demographic Studies in Barcelona, Spain, found that people born after 1980 spend more time living with extended family.
Living with kin would alleviate loneliness and help offset living costs for those in lower socioeconomic groups.
Mr. Cuddeback said that by joining extended family households, unmarried women and others without traditional family structures could share financial responsibilities, reducing the individual burden of housing, utilities and caregiving.
“As the reality of unmarried older people grows, can we take a new look as a society and as individuals at reevaluating: How do we household?” Mr. Cuddeback said. “Maybe there’s more reason than we realize to live in a household with unmarried family members. Clearly, this can be a great gift — in both directions.”
• Emma Ayers can be reached at eayers@washingtontimes.com.
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