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Think Pieces

Vol. 6 No. 2: September issue

Rationalized aging: Creative destruction and the subdivision of US eldercare

  • Alana Lee Glaser
DOI
https://doi.org/10.17157/mat.6.2.723
Submitted
May 21, 2019
Published
30-Sep-2019

Abstract

There are approximately 4.4 million direct-care workers in the United States. Comprising the labor of nurses, home health aides, certified nursing assistants, personal attendants, and companions to the elderly, direct-care work constitutes one of the fastest-growing labor niches in the United States. Within the commodified caregiving sector, cost-cutting imperatives to subdivide care labor introduce insalubrious complications for patients by cleaving – or attempting to do so – their physical needs from their emotional and relational needs, a process that I label ‘rationalized aging’. In this essay, I reflect on my experiences as a paid elder companion in New York City to argue that this process of subdivision combines earlier nineteenth-century rationalization strategies with neoliberal regimes of flexible accumulation and to highlight the consequences of subdivision in this sector both for care workers and for the patients in their care.