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Aging America, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

Professor Sarah Harper's assessment of the legal, political, medical, and economic issues associated with old age in the United States heralded the theme for this Symposium, "Aging America." Her analysis turns, as she puts it, on "a fundamental shift in the demographic structure of society. No longer will it be the norm to have large numbers of young and small numbers of old,"1 as it was when I was a boy (age 11 on V.J. Day, 1945).

"Rather, we are entering a world where age groups will be distributed more or less equally across society-an age-symmetric society."

2 Soon, America …