[lit-ideas] Re: Growing Old the Hard Way: China, Russia, India

  • From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 17:59:52 -0700

Which has nothing to do with the article

 

  _____  

From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Carol Kirschenbaum
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 5:22 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Growing Old the Hard Way: China, Russia, India

 

Lawrence Helm wrote: 

>I fail to see what American rest homes have to do with any of this.  

 

ck: Context. This article disparages care for the elderly in certain
countries. Presumably, then, care for older people is okay, or at least
better than terrible, elsewhere. But where? Not Europe, you say. So Julie
(and Judith, and I, too), would wonder what corner of America you're looking
at, because from where we sit, American rest homes are awful except for a
small minority.

Lawrence Helm also wrote: 

>In our case, money was no object.  

 

ck: QED, yours is a minority report. I'd tell you how things are for too
many people in California, in NY, and throughout the US for the hoards who
have recently lost their pensions, but you wouldn't believe it. Tip: Elderly
people from Latin cultures tend to be cared for by family (if there is any)
the way we imagine Asians had treated their own, until recently. 

 

Carol

 

 

 

 

 

 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Lawrence <mailto:lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>  Helm 

To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 4:54 PM

Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Growing Old the Hard Way: China, Russia, India

 

Judy,

 

Did you read the article?   In China with a low per capita income there
isn't going to be money available to take care of all the old people.  This
is becoming true also in Europe but for a different reason.  In Europe
entitlements were promised, cradle to the grave, but with an aging work
force and a dependence upon young workers paying for the retired workers
pensions, European governments are anticipating trouble in meeting those
commitments.  France has a different sort of trouble.  France could be out
of trouble if its people would vote themselves more reasonable entitlements.
There per capita income is high enough, but they don't seem willing to do
that.  China's per capita income isn't high enough.

 

Susan's stepmother (who was childless but was nevertheless loved by Susan),
Nita, had a decent pension and could afford to stay in her own place, but
she became too weak to do so.  She had fallen and Susan wasn't strong enough
to pick her up and had to call for help.  We put her in a nice rest home
near us and Susan visited her almost every day.  We let Nita pick a place
where she could be in a room by herself and have her own stuff around her.
Someone was on call 24 hours a day and Susan checked to make sure the rest
home was living up to their commitment.  This strikes me as a good thing and
it is something most of the aged in China are not going to have available to
them.  China could have had this if they had made a different economic
choice at the time that Japan was being tutored in Liberal Democracy, but as
we know they had their own ideas about economy.

 

Lawrence

 


  _____  


From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Judith Evans
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 3:33 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Growing Old the Hard Way: China, Russia, India

 

LH>Thus, while China as Europe looks down upon the crass 

LH>materialistic society of America, they are increasingly 

LH>ill-equipped to provide the entitlements that help them to feel superior.

 

So Americans have stopped granny-dumping?  (and nursing homes suddenly 

became affordable there?)

 

 

 

Judy Evans, Cardiff

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