The social creation of dependence, dependency ratios, and the elderly in the United States: a critical analysis

The paper addresses critically the issue of the age/dependency ratio in the United States. It is argued that embedded in this 'objective' statistic are struggles among specific social groups and societal contradictions which only come to the fore when its assumptions, calculations and usage are explored. Through an examination of the notion of social creation of dependency, the manner in which the dependency ratio is calculated and the relationship between the socio-economic structure and the creation of dependency, it is argued that the commonly employed statistics are based on assumptions that are supportive of existing dominant social relations. This phenomenon generates a reproduction of these relations and, at the same time, circumscribes the range of solutions to the problems.