This most timely, authoritative, and insightful book provides a new framework for understanding the circumstances currently surrounding America's elderly. It establishes the important foundation of three key forces which are changing the national perspective on the aging. They are: generational claims on the government to respond to social needs; diversity in aging populations; and increasing longevity. Torres-Gil provides a context, supported by informative background material, for recognizing the significant demographic changes being experienced in the United States. The work considers the policy issues, decisions, controversies, and choices now associated with aging and demonstrates how the perception of the elderly has changed from the 1960s and 1970s to today. It asks what is fair in the allocation of public and private resources to the elderly. How does the nation pay for services? How do we make and implement the political and economic decisions with which a government and a society are now faced?

Torres-Gil examines the ability of the government and the active labor force to support a large elderly population and urges a change in the current delivery of services and benefits. He addresses all the essential issues necessary to avoid inter-generational conflict--including comprehensive planning, the building of social consensus, and inter-generational coalitions.