Social attitudes and behaviors towards aging have varied
enormously over different historical periods and between different
societies and cultures. In Western societies during the 2 0 th,
attitudes towards aging were characterized by the view that
the elderly are a burden on society and that special services
were needed to care for them. Demographers spoke gloomily
of the high 'dependency ratios' in these countries which required
high government expenditures and the intolerable burden dependency
placed on younger working people. These themes have
been reiterated in recent debates about the privatization of social
security. The payment of income support, the demands on the
health care system and the widespread use of residential care to
house elderly people all contributed to the high costs of aging