Ageing, Equality, and Community

Ageing raises intriguing questions for equality. If we are generally better off by living longer, how can egalitarian societies justify devoting so much of their state budget to the older? This article examines how two egalitarian views - distributive and relational equality - address these questions. It shows that each has strengths despite pulling in different directions, but both remain inadequate in addressing some critical cases. I suggest filling this gap with G.A. Cohen's principle of community. While this principle has been underexplored in the literature on ageing, it is sensible and distinctive to claim that people who live longer are owed not just equality but also community. It paves a promising new avenue for theories of justice in ageing.