ABSTRACT
This chapter on ageing brings with it a number of important discussions beyond the obvious issues of social care and ill health. For example, there are many problematic aspects of the ideas of both retirement and a prescribed ‘retirement age’. It links to many issues about paid and unpaid work, as well as the deservingness or otherwise of being able to retire on a decent pension. Prof. Ginsburg argues that the current situation of retired people seems to solidify and strengthen inequalities of ‘race’, class and gender in the labour market and across society as a whole. In addition, another dimension of the discourse around ageing as a social problem looked at here is in terms of intergenerational injustice. It is sometime suggested that older people, having benefited from secure employment and the welfare state in the post-war decades, are now kicking the ladder behind them, leaving younger people to face a much more precarious job market and a meaner welfare state. Retired people enjoy ‘third age’ consumerism at the expense of the generations behind them. This argument implies that there should be a redistribution of resources from older people to those of ‘working age’. On this issue, Prof. Ginsburg maintains that this picture of old age and the conflict between the generations is not only over-simplified but can also be potentially harmful for us all.
