Comparative analyses of related issues are particularly advantageous in providing perspectives on areas of controversy. Long-Term Care is one such area. While there can be no debate about the rapid growth world-wide in the elderly segment of the population, especially the oldest-old, there are major differences in national attitudes and, thus, in national policies and programs about entitlements, care and coverage of costs.
In the United States, if the proponents of the philosophy of scarcity prevail, the planning is likely to reflect what George Foster referred to as the concept of "Limited Good" in his writings about peasant mentality. This concept implies that any gains made by one individual or group are at the expense of others. As a result groups are going to be in almost adversarial competition with one another. It is interesting to note the seepage of this concept into the rhetoric of an increasing number of the "new Federalists" emerging in one of the major industrial societies of the contemporary world. In their view, the United States will need to establish guidelines for generational equity to protect the young from the rapacity of the unproductive old who are consuming a growing and burdensome share of the finite resources available for health and social services. These individuals are writing articles and books that must be of concern to all of the people who have worked with or done research on the elderly, or are themselves growing older. The main ideas presented are that our resources are limited and the benefits for the elderly must be curtailed in order to help the young. This is justified by the argument that many of these benefits are helping middle class old people sustain a particular life style when they should only be targeted toward the "truly needy." So costs should be reduced by requiring more stringent means tests, taxing benefits for all but the poorest recipients of social security, increasing the responsibilities of families, and encouraging more "self