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There is obviously no doubt that America is getting older. It is natural, it is inevitable, and it is happening a little more each day. For example, even the youngest Baby Boomers have been alive for more than 45 years, so their arrival is hardly a recently revealed secret. According to a recent article by Philip Moeller for U.S.News & World Report, the implications of an aging world are not often frequently discussed or even raised.

Moeller believes that governments and institutions at all levels already are overwhelmed with today's firestorms and asking them to take steps to avoid future problems may seem like a wasted effort. “However, the stakes of not asking the right questions about the future are enormous,” he states.

To help address this, The Stanford Center on Longevity has just published a review of major aging and demographic information and research findings called New Realities for an Older America: Challenges, Changes and Questions. As an invaluable tool for all researchers, this document captures the nation’s major aging trends in a single report. In fact, its authors, Adele M. Hayutin, Miranda Dietz, and Lillian Mitchell, not only summarize what is already known about these new realities, but they pose many of the biggest questions and ask how we are going to deal with them.

The Stanford report begins by highlighting six factoids that it believes will drive the debate over how America deals with an aging society:

• One in every five Americans will be at least 65 years old in 2030, up from 13 percent today and only 8 percent in 1950.
• The United States will turn majority Hispanic in about 30 years, at which time Hispanics will equal nearly a third of the work force and dominate the youth market.
• Older people are living much longer, and retirements are lasting 20 to 30 years instead of 10 or 15.
• The worker to retiree ratio has fallen from 8 in 1950 to 5.2 today and will decline to 3 by 2050. If we raise the retirement age to 70, the ratio would still fall to 4.3 by 2050.
• The numbers of households with older Americans has soared to about 22.5 million and nearly half of them represent older Americans living alone.
• Healthcare costs are much higher for older persons, and the price tag for caregiving and housing medically dependent seniors will soar.

Moeller notes that as a response to these powerful realities, the Stanford report is peppered with questions for government and business policymakers as well as individuals. As a result, the report is an essential study guide to learning the right questions to ask. “The researchers don't attempt to answer them, and at least today, neither will I—but they are all thought provoking and will be the focus of countless future articles and commentaries,” he adds.

The article lists the following dozen important questions the country needs to address in regards to aging in America:

1. How should we change our old-age support programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—and other age-related polices so that we, as a society and as individuals, can realize the benefits of increased longevity without being overwhelmed by the costs?

2. How will voting patterns and social spending priorities change as the racial and ethnic composition of the country changes?

3. What are the political ramifications of having an increasingly Hispanic work force pay taxes to fund Social Security and Medicare for the largely white non-Hispanic 65-plus population?

4. What challenges will people face as they “age-in-place” in the suburbs?

5. What incentives would lead individuals and communities to make realistic provisions for their long-term care needs and living arrangements, without adding to the already substantial budgetary pressures governments face because of aging populations?

6. What home-based services available in traditional communities would allow people to remain independent longer? How can communities and states insure that there will be sufficient institutional capacity?

7. What are the characteristics of age-friendly communities and what are the critical indicators of success?

8. Will rising levels of obesity cancel out or even reverse projected increases in life expectancy? What is the best way to tackle obesity, and how much would be saved by reversing the trend?

9. Will mortality rates for dementia continue to rise? What medical breakthroughs might reduce the prevalence, age of onset, or speed of progression?

10. How will rising health care spending threaten personal and national financial security as the population ages?

11. What incentive structures would encourage older people to work longer? What barriers and disincentives affect labor force participation rates among older people?

12. What are the most effective tools for helping people better anticipate the financial needs of longer lives? What are the financial skills and tools necessary for appropriate decision making and planning regarding savings, retirement benefit plans, retirement age, housing choices, and health care expenditures in an age of rising costs and asset volatility?