ABSTRACT
All in all, a society’s conditions of life are unlikely to be much affected by either the number of the elderly or their share of the total population. Far greater importance can be expected to attach to: (a) the physical and mental condition of the elderly themselves and (b) the political, economic, geographic/environmental, and social conditions in the society of which they are a part. Such elements are, of course, interactive. Old age will be burdensome-both to the aged and to the society-to the extent that housing, medical attention, income distribution, and the availability of public transportation, for example, are not of a sort to enable the great majority of old people to remain active and useful, assured of status and livelihood, and enjoying a reasonable degree of predictability about the future. Old age will be burdensome if the elderly are not enabled-as they so often can be-to look after most of their needs themselves; if those who provide them with care-whether kin, friends, or professionals-are not themselves provided with the facilities and assistance necessary to that task; if cities and towns, parks and recreational areas are not laid out in ways appropriate to pedestrian, rather than motorized, use.
