“The gray lobby has a stranglehold on aging policy in the United States.” 341
“Poverty among the old remains a major problem.” 351
“Social Security is going broke; within a few decades, there won’t be any money to pay promised benefits.” 386
“Retirement is bad for your health.” 425
“The United States introduced age 65 for retirement, following Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who picked that number because it was his own age.” 443
“Boomers are the best educated, healthiest generation ever.” 467
“Ageism is the work of the advertising industry.” 486
Global Perspective
The Search for Meaning in Asian Religions 41
Blue Zones for Longer Life 76
Universities of the Third Age 114
Age-Based Rationing of Health Care in Britain 187
Singapore’s Law Requiring Support of Aged Parents 218
Ponzi Schemes Around the World 257
Assisted Dying in Europe 284
Vulnerable Elders in China 360
The New Swedish National Pension System 393
Older Workers in Japan 436
Aging Boomers 468
The Consumer Marketplace in Great Britain 489
Thinking Critically
Meaning in Later Life 43
Caloric Restriction 75
With Age Comes Wisdom? 112
Where Do You Come Down on the Rationing Debate? 185
Family Expectations 217
Would You Want to Be Protected From “Bad” Choices? 255
The Right to Die 284
Generational Competition 358
The Future of Social Security 389
Love and Work (and Love Your Work?) 439
What Generation Are You? 463
Drinking From the Fountain of Youth 487
Age Appreciation 510
Readings
1 The Coming of Age 47
2 Successful Aging 49
3 Vital Involvement in Old Age 50
4 The Measure of My Days 53
5 Why Do We Live as Long as We Do? 81
6 Vitality and Aging: Implications of the Rectangular Curve 82
7 The Compression of Morbidity Hypothesis: A Review of Research and Prospects for the Future 90
8 We Will Be Able to Live to 1,000 92
9 Don’t Fall for the Cult of Immortality 94
10 Age and Achievement 115
11 Creative Life Cycles 121
12 Growing Old or Living Long: Take Your Pick 124
13 Aging and Creativity 127
14 Why We Must Set Limits 194
15 Pricing Life: Why It’s Time for Health Care Rationing 200
16 The Pied Piper Returns for the Old Folks 201
17 From an Ethics of Rationing to an Ethics of Waste Avoidance 203
18 Aim Not Just for Longer Life, but Expanded “Health Span” 205
19 Medicaid and Long-Term Care 226
20 Aging America’s Achilles’ Heel: Medicaid Long-Term Care 228
21 The Case Against Paying Family Caregivers: Ethical and Practical Issues 233
22 For Love and Money: Paying Family Caregivers 237
23 The Right to Freedom From Restraints 262
24 Ethical Dilemmas in Elder Abuse 264
25 Understanding Elder Abuse 266
26 Elder Abuse: Sometimes It’s Self-Inflicted 270
27 Medical Aid In Dying 290
28 A Time to Die: The Place for Physician Assistance 292
29 What We Lose When We Gain the Right to Die 294
30 Neither for Love nor Money: Why Doctors Must Not Kill 297
31 Spending on Children and the Elderly 365
32 A Generational War Over the Budget? It’s Hard to See It in the Numbers 368
33 The Generational Equity Debate 371
34 The Necessity and Desirability of Social Security Reform 400
35 Social Security Reform and Benefit Adequacy 403
36 Social Security for Yesterday’s Family? 409
37 The Future of Social Security: Proposals You Should Know About 411
38 This New Social Security Bill Could Make Social Security Even Better 414
39 The Social Security 2100 Act Would Significantly Harm Americans 415
40 Framework for Considering Productive Aging and Work 444
41 Prime Time 450
42 Moving Toward a Creative Retirement 452
43 The Fading Dream of Retirement 454
44 Boomsday 473
45 Baby Boomers: From Great Expectations to a Crisis of Meaning 474
46 The Longevity Revolution: As Boomers Become Elders 477
47 The Long Baby Boom: An Optimistic Vision for a Graying Generation 479
48 Overview of the Boomer Market 493
49 Age Branding 494
50 The Marketplace of Memory: What the Brain Fitness Technology Industry Says About Us and How We Can Do Better 499
51 No Truth to the Fountain of Youth 502
Preface
As we prepared this 10th edition of Aging: Concepts and Controversies, we were keenly aware of the many significant national and global issues that dwell in the background: worsening climate change; the immigration crisis in North America and Europe; the resurgence of totalitarianism, populism, and racism; public health emergencies; and ongoing economic and political instability. While none of these issues are “aging issues” per se, they are inarguably large scale human issues that can have immediate and long-term impact at both the individual and collective levels in terms of access to resources, opportunity structures, and quality of life as we travel through the life course.
Since the previous edition of this book, the oldest members of the baby boom generation have begun collecting Social Security, and the process of population aging is well under way. Given current demographic trends, it is likely that tens of thousands of Americans born after the year 2000 will live to see the dawn of another century, the 22nd. Many of you who are reading this book will spend the greatest part of your lives experiencing dramatic changes already evident in telecommunications, biotechnology, and genetics. This ever-accelerating change will produce even more debate and controversy about how we are to live and participate in an aging society and in the 21st century.
In