Spare the Old, Save the Young.

In the coming years, Daniel Callahan's call to ration health care for the elderly, put forth in his book "Setting Limits," is likely to have a growing appeal. Practically all economic observers expect the United States to go through a difficult time as it attempts to work its way out of its domestic and international deficits. Practically every serious analyst realizes that such an endeavor will initially entail slower growth, if not an outright cut in the standard of living, in order to release resources to these priorities. When the national economic "pie" grows more slowly, let alone contracts, the fight over how to divide it up intensifies. The elderly make an especially inviting target because they have been taking a growing slice of the resources and are expected to take even more in the future. Old people are widely held to be "nonproductive" and to constitute a growing "burden" on an ever-smaller proportion of society that is young and working.