Abstract
T HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED in a number of recent popular articles that one of the basic facts of political life in mid-twentiethcentury America is the increasing number of older people in our total population. For many years social scientists have investigated carefully the problem of juvenile adjustment to modern society, and the efforts of Negroes to achieve a political, economic, and social status commensurate with the principles which are considered basic to American democracy. Older people now comprise a larger proportion of our population than do either juveniles or Negroes.' Yet as members of a special group, older persons have not received so profound an intellectual analysis as Myrdal's An American Dilemma, nor so profound a series of treatments as the books and articles on youthful delinquency. Contemporary articles on older people frequently repeat popular conceptions without any serious attempt at systematic factual investigation of their validity. These articles often fall into two categories, tending either to stress the potentialities of the aged as a tremendous pressure group or to deal glowingly in panaceas. The following excerpt from an article entitled Old Age Turns Explosive 2 provides an interesting illustration of the sort of sweeping generalization which purports to inform the public about the possible consequences of an aging population:
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