ABSTRACT
A civic heart has little to do with one's personal code of behavior; it has more to do with W. H. Auden's sense of pooled "love": "Public subsidy"—that slightly tainted term some use as a synonym for social security benefits—is said to be the elderly's favorite form of income; luxury, their chosen life-style. Social security alone enables at least half of the elderly population to escape penury. An attempt has been made throughout to tease forth the strands of social policy embedded in elderly daily life. The very existence of a quantifiable definition of poverty has provided reformers with a benchmark by which to assess social progress and retreat. The national community's social welfare arsenal lacks a suitable home-care weapon. Social security is the daddy of them all, an offspring of the Great Depression and the New Deal. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
