#jameschappel — Public Fediverse posts

GOLDEN YEARS: HOW AMERICANS INVENTED AND REINVENTED OLD AGE, by James Chappel, is an academic's look at how the perception of and expectations for old age have changed in the US through the 20th century. The author is a professor at Duke, but despite its academic origin the book is really readable and tells an interesting narrative.

The 1930s saw the formation of the Social Security system, where the goal was to keep old people out of poverty and keep them from being a burden to their families. The economic good times of the 1950s gave older people increasing independence, and developers saw an opportunity in building retirement communities, assisted living, and nursing homes.

But the recession of the 1970s cut short the curve of improvement, and all ambition for grand social programs disappeared and hasn't come back; in the 1980s a boom in dementia patients was left to families, usually the daughters, to handle. At the same time, politically-focused groups such as the Gray Panthers (great name!) were replaced by the largely apolitical and consumer-focused AARP. We'll need to do better in the 21st century, but will the appetite for large social programs ever come back, and will the resource-constrained 21st-century US be able to support them?

#books #bookstodon #JamesChappel #GoldenYears #SocialSecurity