Aging, Abandonment, and the Political Economy of Neglect: Social Security and the Ethics of Disposability

This paper examines aging in the United States as a condition shaped less by biology than by governance. It argues that abandonment, delay, and administrative erosion constitute a form of structural violence, in which harm is inflicted not through force but through neglect. By situating Social Security, healthcare access, and late-life insecurity within international ethical and human rights frameworks, the paper reframes aging as a political outcome rather than a natural inevitability. It demonstrates how lifelong inequality—across income, race, gender, and place—determines who is permitted to grow old and with what dignity. Viewed from a global perspective, the United States’ approach to aging reveals a moral economy in which longevity is unevenly distributed and care is treated as conditional. The paper contends that when a state allows populations to fade away through policy design, it violates fundamental principles of democratic responsibility and human dignity.