The greying of the baby boom in the United States: Framing the policy debate

Eric R. Kingson

International Social Security Review, 1991, vol. 44, issue 1‐2, 5-26

Abstract: Issues surrounding the retirement of the large post‐World War II “baby boom” generation in the United States are often framed either in terms of impending intergenerational crisis or as an event to which the United States can gradually adjust. This paper examines these two perspectives as they compete to define US social security policy. It suggests that the intergenerational crisis perspective functions primarily as an ideological argument and strategy for de‐structuring social welfare policy. In contrast, the gradual adjustment perspective provides a stronger basis for planning social security and other policy responses to the ageing of the baby boom. However, it is not informed by a clear social vision and has not, as yet, responded sufficiently to the potential divisiveness which may accompany changing demography. Also, to date, relatively little attention has been paid to the diverse social and economic circumstances of baby boomers and the implications of this diversity for retirement planning.

Date: 1991
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-246X.1991.tb00882.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:intssr:v:44:y:1991:i:1-2:p:5-26

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Social Security Review from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().