ABSTRACT
The crisis mentality concerning policies toward older Americans with a rare opportunity to reframe our public policy agenda in terms of fundamental issues regarding the nature and extent of governmental responsibility for older persons. Policy issues concerning older Americans have been framed for a long time by an underlying ageism—the attribution of the same characteristics, status, and just deserts—to a group that is artificially labeled “the aged.” In the context of an overall study of Economic Policy in an Aging Society it examined the probable aggregate economic effects of an expanded public income transfer program that would be used as a direct measure for addressing income adequacy problems of the elderly through the year 2025. The central contemporary policy challenge is to refashion the underlying premises by asking fundamental questions about the nature and extent of collective responsibility toward older persons. The aged do constitute a large block of participating voters.
