Social
Welfare and the Life Cycle
This report is
organized according to the sequential phases of the life cycle:
infancy and childhood, young adulthood, the working years, and old
age. As the following vignettes suggest, a person's need for
opportunity really begins before birth with prenatal care and
extends through the retirement years. The same is true of a
person's need for basic security.
A baby is born
this year in an inner-city hospital, one of the majority who are
destined to spend at least part of their childhood in a family
headed by a woman. In theory the baby's future holds the qual
opportunity open to all Americans at birth. In reality much will
depend on the system of protections built around the child, by its
family and by society at large. Will the baby be one of those
already at a mental and physical disadvantage because of inadequate
prenatal care or because their mothers were using crack? Will
financial support from an absent father be forthcoming, and if not,
will society help enforce the child's right to such support? Will
decent day care and family services be available? Will the child
grow up in a neighborhood where most adults have no jobs, crime is
an everyday event, and most children are not functioning well by
the time they enter kindergarten? Will the newborn baby live in a
social milieu that protects its chance for a productive, rewarding
life, or is it already condemned to dependency, poverty, and
alienation?
A
forty-five-year-old steelworker in Pennsylvania finds himself laid
off because of foreign competition. Has the economy provided other
jobs at decent wages? Is there unemployment insurance to help with
the transition? If employers in the industry do not want an older
worker, are retraining facilities available? Should illness strike,
will the worker have good health benefits?
An
eighty-year-old widow believes that she has lived long enough and
worked hard enough to deserve respect and independence. She fears
becoming an economic burden to her children. Has this elderly woman
had a realistic opportunity to make financial provisions for her
care should she no longer be able to function on her own? Must her
protections be paid for by risking the economic well-being of her
children and grandchildren?
It is a false
dichotomy to picture opportunity as something only the young
need