Provisioning under austerity: an evolutionary strategy for meeting human needs through the next millennium

This chapter considers how to meet the needs for eldercare under a condition of zero population growth necessary to address the environmental crisis. It points out that eldercare falls outside the dominant economic forms. It reviews the potential effect on eldercare of the standard proposals for post-capitalism based on quality, fairness of the distribution of care, fairness of the assignment of responsibility, and the level of care. It proposes building new institutions that would perform the functions traditionally performed by families, post-families, to provide necessary services and develop intergenerational relationships. Finally, it considers the challenges for implementing post-families.