In the US, not even $11,000 a month can buy you dignity at the end of your life
1–10 of 35 posts
Re: In the US, not even $11,000 a month can buy you dignity at the end of your life
#2I don't want to be judgmental because I know these are extremely difficult situations with no easy answers, but what strikes me about this article is that the author blames the profit motive after what can be uncharitably viewed as taking an elderly parent and paying a third party to make the "problem" go away from your life.
This industry is driven solely by demand and there are highly-developed countries where it doesn't exist, or doesn't exist on this scale, simply because of different social norms and taboos.
What's the outcome we're hoping for? We're talking elderly folks we'd rather not care for ourselves and that we don't want to watch declining and dying, and we're dumping them into a large-scale... well, death facility.
Re: In the US, not even $11,000 a month can buy you dignity at the end of your life
#3For 11.000 Dollar you can hire like 3 people living with him.
Re: In the US, not even $11,000 a month can buy you dignity at the end of your life
#4"you can't buy love", as they say... Nobody will take care of loved ones as well as kin, as onerous as that may be...
Re: In the US, not even $11,000 a month can buy you dignity at the end of your life
#5From all I've read and experienced, private equity not only strips all the money from nursing home companies but also from the residents
Re: In the US, not even $11,000 a month can buy you dignity at the end of your life
#6This touches upon something that Europeans generally don’t understand about Americans’ individual wealth: the very last years of your life can drain almost any retirement account.
I’ve often had the conversation with Finns who are envious of American 401k balances. But they fail to see the real value of a national pension system that is guaranteed to pay roughly 52% of your last salary for the rest of your life, and a healthcare system that guarantees that the expensive cancer you get won’t mean selling your house.
Not having to think about whether you’ll be bankrupt at 80 is a kind of freedom too.
Re: In the US, not even $11,000 a month can buy you dignity at the end of your life
#7"you can't buy love", as they say... Nobody will take care of loved ones as well as kin, as onerous as that may be...
I'm sorry but this isn't true. I'm taking care of my 80+ year old mother with dementia and my brother and I pay people to come look in on her specifically because we can't be there for her like that. More specifically, she's a narcissist and extremely abusive and we just won't/can't put up with that.
She needs way more than that too, but the money just isn't there. The entire situation is frustrating, exhausting and hopeless. She didn't provide for herself to live this long and probably will deteriorate over the next decade while we continue to not be able to provide her with good enough care.
Looking ahead to the later years of my own life, I don't have any family to take care of me and don't expect to be wealthy. I'm looking at assisted suicide as the way out of that kind of aging. Honestly it all seems a bit fucked.
Re: In the US, not even $11,000 a month can buy you dignity at the end of your life
#8This touches upon something that Europeans generally don’t understand about Americans’ individual wealth: the very last years of your life can drain almost any retirement account. I’ve often had the conversation with Finns who are envious of American 401k balances. But they fail to see the real value of a national pension system that is guaranteed to pay roughly 52% of your last salary for the rest of your life, and…
> This touches upon something that Europeans generally don’t understand about Americans’ individual wealth: the very last years of your life can drain almost any retirement account.
This is also true in some parts Europe. Retirement home is very expensive, and the service is usually mediocre at best. There's also been the same kind of stories with some kindergartens lately.
On many services, we're much better off than the US, but when it comes to retirement homes, we're very bad aswell.
Re: In the US, not even $11,000 a month can buy you dignity at the end of your life
#9Why is no one starting a new care facility that isn’t as profit-driven / greed-motivated?
Re: In the US, not even $11,000 a month can buy you dignity at the end of your life
#10I don't want to be judgmental because I know these are extremely difficult situations with no easy answers, but what strikes me about this article is that the author blames the profit motive after what can be uncharitably viewed as taking an elderly parent and paying a third party to make the "problem" go away from your life. This industry is driven solely by demand and there are highly-developed countries where it d…
I'm sorry, but people have lives and kids of their own. To frame this as "Children are being cruel by putting their parents in nursing homes" is totally disingenuous and ignores the realities of modern society.
Caring for the elderly who cannot care for themselves is a full-time job that requires more than a little bit of specialized medical expertise. Throw a 3 year-old into that environment, and it's a recipe for disaster, injury, and marital dysfunction.