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Challenges in an aging society: Presidential address to APPAM
Author(s) -
Swartz Katherine
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of policy analysis and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.898
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1520-6688
pISSN - 0276-8739
DOI - 10.1002/pam.20489
Subject(s) - honor , blame , excuse , pleasure , privilege (computing) , presidential system , sociology , law , media studies , political science , psychology , politics , neuroscience , psychiatry , computer science , operating system
are facing the largest debt in our history along with a severe recession and the highest unemployment rate since 1983. At the same time, we are grappling with pressing social policy and national security issues that are extremely difficult to resolve— they require more money and touch upon entrenched differences of opinion about the role of government. The types of research we all do has made the current debates far more informed than they were 50 years ago. We have the ability to estimate likely effects of various proposed policy changes, and our empirical findings are critical components of behavioral assumptions in models we use to predict likely programmatic effects. Although we can (and should) congratulate ourselves and this association for vastly improving public debates about policy proposals, it’s time to move to another level in how we view issues. The policy problems we are confronting today are interconnected more than ever—energy policies intersect with environmental and transportation issues, environmental pollutants impact our health care spending, and educational attainment affects our economic competitiveness and national security—to name just a few of the intersections. Their interrelations deserve far more emphasis in the public discourse about the problems confronting the country. They have everything to do with how we analyze options for addressing the policy choices before us. I want to make two arguments in this talk/paper.