Intergenerational Equity and Public Spending
| Autor: | A. E. Benjamin, Paul W. Newacheck, Hannah Wolfe |
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| Rok vydání: | 1991 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Pediatrics. 88:75-83 |
| ISSN: | 1098-4275 0031-4005 |
| Popis: | Both inside and outside of government, it has been widely held that the recent growth in spending for programs for older persons has come at the expense of commitments to programs for other vulnerable groups, especially children.1,2 What had emerged a decade ago as concerns about the "graying of the federal budget"3 and "uncontrollable spending"4 for aging had by the mid-1980s developed a more pointed focus, involving the costs to one disadvantaged group (ie, children) or benefits to another (ie, the elderly): Both old and young rely heavily on the government for needed ... services. However, the ability of the government to provide these services ... has shrunk, while the elderly continue to expand in number and power. The net result is almost inevitably more for the old, less for the young.5 Growing concern over issues of intergenerational equity are rooted in a number of distinct but related trends in population, prosperity, and health. First, there is growing awareness and evidence that the demographic composition of America has changed significantly as the fertility rate has fallen from its postwar peak in 1957 to a level barely half that by 1985,6 while both the numbers and longevity of elderly Americans have grown steadily. Bureau of the Census projections suggest the population older than 65 years of age will increase some 17% by the year 2000. In contrast, projections indicate that the population younger than 18 years will increase at only one fifth the rate of the elderly into the next century.7 |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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