California is getting older and poorer. That’s what the new census data shows. And everyone knows the combination is a troubling mix:
“We have a longevity revolution happening, and in San Francisco we’re calling it ‘the silver tsunami,’ ” said Valorie Villela, director of the 30th Street Senior Center. “It’s hitting hard, and once again our society is not prepared.”
She said her research shows that by 2025 in San Francisco, 1 in 5 people will be older than 65 and the number of people older than 85 will have doubled. That trend is coming at a time when the state has been running huge deficits year after year, forcing cuts to services such as adult day care and Medi-Cal.
It’s particularly intriguing since one out of every five billionaires in America lives in California. So we don’t have enough money to take care of our seniors, and things are just going to get worse — but there’s a vast amount of wealth in the state. You wonder.
If the state had four million people between the ages of 18 and 25 who had no money, no prospects, not enough to eat and no place to live while a handful of billionaires were living fat and happy and controlling an outsized portion of the state’s wealth, that would be a recipe for, well, fighting in the streets.
Seniors tend to vote more than kids, but they don’t, so far, tend to march and riot and break things and threaten the security of the wealthy (and the politicians who cater to them). But the next wave of seniors is different; the baby boomers know all about taking it to the streets. And they’re living longer and healthier. Your average 65 year old today can carry a torch and a pitchfork just fine. Some of them can even throw rocks and bottles and shout “Eat the Rich!” (Hey, they’ve been there and done that already. Still got the notes.)
So I think it’s safe to say that this current trend ain’t sustainable. And even the Republicans up in Sacramento ought to get that. Nothing is worse for plutocracy than a crowd of hungry, angry seniors who spent their college years in the SDS.