Government's Obligation to the Elderly?

At firstthings blog, a post by Peter Lawler (postmodernconservative) of Roger Scruton's A Political Philosophy:

…[G]given that fact, it is more than ever necessary for us to incorporate death into our life plans. We need to recognize the value of timely death and the futility of living beyond the point where anyone will mourn our passing. Whatever our viewing of the afterlife and the promises and threats of religion, we must recognize that happiness on Earth is available only through giving and receiving affection. From the first-person perspective the critical question is not that of terminal illness and the suffering can usually be alleviated, and a person can be terminally ill even though fully capable of giving and receiving love. The critical question is longevity itself, which has brought about a situation in which we all have something to fear worse than death, namely the living death of the loveless.

The church, its own populations aging, seems to be asking, more so than any other societal group, how we institutionalize and socialize care of the elderly as they grow in number.

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