Efforts in the United States to encourage divisiveness within the working class have been widely recognised as a key strategy in the war on welfare. This paper examines one aspect of this overall strategy, namely the creation of an ideology based on generational equity and ‘age/race wars’ thinking, which blames the old for poverty and economic hardship in the young. Attempts to frame problem analysis and policy deliberations within such an ideological framework are seen to be based on spurious assumptions concerning the relative financial well-being of the old, the role of elderly entitlements as a cause of poverty in minority children, and growing resentment of programmes for the old among minorities and youth.

This paper examines recent attempts to de-legitimate the claims of the elderly through the advancement of an ideology of age/race wars. The assumptions underlying this approach to policy are critiqued, and a case is made for developing an alternative framework which would stress the interdependence of generations, rather than age/race group competition.

Later life and ill health are perceived as being synonymous. To be old is to be unhealthy, while youth is associated with good health. One result of the widespread acceptance of this stereotype is that there has been little analysis of differences in health status within the post-retirement age groups. Data from the 1980 and 1985 General Household Survey (GHS) are used to consider patterns of health in later life. Using cross-sectional analysis, it is shown that morbidity increases with age. However, even for those aged 85+ the experience of ill health is shown not to be universal. Health status varies between both men and women and between the social classes. These differences are shown not to be the result of the varying age composition of the gender and class groups. The data presented show that there are profound age, gender and class differences in health status in later life and these represent the continuation of inequalities observed within the non-retired population.

This study is an attempt to explore the dynamics in a group of family caregivers in a small rural setting in Sweden. Thirty-nine caregivers giving extensive help to elderly family members, who were all on the verge of institutionalisation, were interviewed. The results showed that the motives of caring were usually based on feelings of reciprocity and that the perceived burden of care was related to the proximity of the carer to the person cared for. Despite the existence of a rather well-developed system of formal care, these resources were poorly coordinated with the informal provision of care.

Population ageing is often thought to have adverse economic consequences, and economics therefore has a responsibility for contributing to an understanding of ageing. This paper discusses the treatment of population ageing in economic theory and argues that mainstream economics is too narrow and restrictive to provide an adequate representation of ageing. An alternative to mainstream economic theory is a more pluralistic view of ageing, drawing from non-neo-classical economic theory and from the theorising of the other social sciences.

Parker's review in the last issue has provided us with a number of questions concerning the relationship between case management services and the needs ofcarers (Parker, 1990a). Essentially, she makes three main points; the first is to question whether there is evidence that some case management services can improve outcomes for carers, the second is about experimental studies, and the third is to raise the question of the financial costs experienced by carers.