The Real Reason 60 Is the New 30: Consumer Debt and Income Insecurity in Late Middle Age1. Issue 2 (29th January 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Leicht, Kevin T.; Fitzgerald, Scott T.
• Is Part Of: Sociological quarterly. Volume 55:Issue 2(2014)
• Page Start: 236
• Page End: 260
• Publication Date: 2014-01-29
• Subjects: Sociology -- Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1111/tsq.12054
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-0253

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>In this analysis, we revisit the arguments made in our 2007 book, <italic>Post‐Industrial Peasants: The Illusion of Middle Class Prosperity</italic>, and foreshadow our arguments in our forthcoming book, <italic>Middle Class Meltdown in America: Causes, Consequences and Remedies</italic> (2014, Routledge). The plight of the American middle class has been growing steadily since the early 1980s, and has been compounded further by the recession of 2008–2009 and its aftermath. We extend our prior work by examining the particular effects of long‐term middle‐class decline and the recent recession on Americans over 55 years old. Our retirement savings simulation presents in stark terms the cumulative disadvantage of working in unsteady jobs with stagnant wages over the course of a late‐20th‐ and early 21st‐century work career. In our discussion, we suggest that one cultural adaptation to the retirement savings crisis is the denial of the realities of aging and the suggestion that most age‐related problems are temporary and fixable. In short, we suspect that one reason "60 is the new 30" is because few Americans can afford to be 60.</p> </abstract>