ABSTRACT
Before considering the policy alternatives to be undertaken in these populations in response to the expectation of older age structures and numerical declines, let us, firstly, put the matter into some perspective. Much of the present concern about the ‘burden’ of the aged seems to have its origin less in knowledge than in ignorance about the characteristics and needs of the elderly and the nature and extent of their social contribution (whether past or present). It also doubtless owes something to the relative novelty of having to rely so much on social, as contrasted with private, sources for provision of the services and facilities deemed necessary to an older population; for costs are more readily assessed and more often converted into monetary terms available for public consumption when the responsibility for such provision falls upon society as a whole than when it falls upon the more restricted entity of recipients and their families. And, of course, any concern over costs is but heightened by the fact that the increase in the demand for these services and facilities seems to have arisen so suddenly-largely, it must be remembered, in response to changes in program, not age structure.
