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ECONOMICS OF AGING:

TOWARD A FULL SHARE IN ABUNDANCE

91-1

HEARINGS

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON

HOUSING FOR THE ELDERLY

OF THE

SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING
UNITED STATES SENATE

NINETY-FIRST CONGRESS

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For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price 55 cents

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Part 1. Survey Hearing, Washington, D.C., April 29-30, 1969
Part 2. Consumer Aspects, Ann Arbor, Mich., June 8, 1969
Part 3. Health Aspects, Washington, D.C., July 17-18, 1969
Part 4. Homeownership Aspects, Washington, D.C., July 31-Aug. 1, 1969
Part 5. Central Urban Area, Paramus, N.J., July 14, 1969
Part 6. Retirement Community, Cape May, N.J., July 15, 1969
Part 7. International Perspectives, Washington, D.C., July 25, 1969
Part 8. National Organizations, Washington, D.C., October 29, 1969
Part 9. Employment Aspects, Washington, D.C., December 18-19, 1969
Part 10. Pension Aspects, Washington, D.C., February 17-18, 1970.
(Additional hearings anticipated but not scheduled at time of this printing)

(II)

CONTENTS

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WITNESSES

THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1969

Page

ECONOMICS OF AGING: TOWARD A FULL SHARE IN

ABUNDANCE

(HOMEOWNERSHIP ASPECTS)

THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1969

U.S. SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HOUSING OF THE ELDERLY

OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING,

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met at 10:10 a.m., pursuant to call, in room 4200, Senate Office Building, Senator Frank E. Moss (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Senators Moss, Saxby, and Gurney.

Committee staff members present: William E. Oriol, staff director; and John Guy Miller, minority staff director.

Senator Moss. The subcommittee will come to order.

OPENING STATEMENT BY SENATOR MOSS

Senator Moss. Today the Subcommittee on Housing for the Elderly of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging will hear from witnesses who have come to discuss "Homeownership Aspects of the Economics of Aging."

As the title may suggest, our hearing is part of a larger study which began earlier this year when a task force for the full Committee on Aging acting at the request of Committee Chairman Harrison A. Williams submitted a working paper called the Economics of Aging: Toward a Full Share in Abundance.

That working paper has become a much-discussed and highly praised document. In very hard-hitting terms it made these points:

The gap between retirement income and the income of those still in the labor force is widening, not narrowing.

Approximately 7 million older Americans live in poverty or near poverty. For widows or other elderly women living alone, the ratio is more than 50 percent.

The economic insecurity of the elderly is not solely the concern of today's older Americans. Unless we make major changes in public policy and then follow up vigorously with action, people who are now middle aged or younger will face an even worse retirement income problem when they reach later years.

Health cost problems are severe, even with the vital protection medicare provides.

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