United We Stand, Divided We Fall: The Divide Between the Haves and Have Nots

While the aging society will provide opportunities to harness the intellectual and experience-base of longevity gains, it also has the potential to fracture along existing lines of disparities. The coming age transition has the potential of exaggerating differences that now exist in health, health care, socio-economic statuses and other life opportunities among social, racial and ethnic groups in this society. This paper addresses the nature of the difficulties and discusses ways to address these in our new institutions of the future.