Social Problems of the Aged

Abstract

Several important conclusions can be drawn from the findings of this study. First, the high incidence of old-age assistance in Oklahoma is not the result of any single factor but of several factors which can be classed as demographic, socioeconomic, and administrative in character. Second, administrative factors, and especially those which might be labeled as political, exert little influence upon variations in old-age assistance rates by counties. Third, not only will the numbers who receive oldage assistance expand along with increases of those persons who reach 65 years of age, but the rates also may be expected to grow disproportionately among the population who attain even higher ages. Fourth, unless the federal system of old-age and survivor's insurance is extended to cover farmers and farm laborers, this program in the future will not be as effective as it might otherwike be in reducing the numbers who may be eligible for old-age assistance.12 This is true because of the relatively high proportion of persons in the total labor force of Oklahoma engaged in agriculture, the percentage being 27.1 in 1940.