Elderly people in the West are treated with less regard than they might been a century ago, I think (although I’m not certain—maybe elderly people in the West have always been treated poorly?)
Government social safety nets for elderly people (such as Social Security in the US) reduce the need for young adults to provide direct care to their elderly parents. This seems likely related.
To me this seems more of an expansion in moral circles though. Most of us in the developed world now seem to think that we’re responsible for everyone’s elderly parents rather than just our own.
Eh, but nowadays we’re “responsible” in a way that carries dark undertones.
Many US elderly aren’t embedded in multigenerational communities, but instead warehoused in nursing homes (where they aren’t in regular contact with their families & don’t have a clear role to play in society).
Hard to say whether this is an improvement over how things were 100 years ago. I do know that I’m personally afraid of ending up in a nursing home & plan to make arrangements to reduce the probability of such.
My impression is the West hasn’t traditionally revered elders as highly as some other societies, but in the distant past the West revered elders more than we do now.
Elderly people in the West are treated with less regard than they might been a century ago, I think (although I’m not certain—maybe elderly people in the West have always been treated poorly?)
Seems like a real shift. (Perhaps driven by the creation of a nursing home industry?)
Government social safety nets for elderly people (such as Social Security in the US) reduce the need for young adults to provide direct care to their elderly parents. This seems likely related.
To me this seems more of an expansion in moral circles though. Most of us in the developed world now seem to think that we’re responsible for everyone’s elderly parents rather than just our own.
Eh, but nowadays we’re “responsible” in a way that carries dark undertones.
Many US elderly aren’t embedded in multigenerational communities, but instead warehoused in nursing homes (where they aren’t in regular contact with their families & don’t have a clear role to play in society).
Hard to say whether this is an improvement over how things were 100 years ago. I do know that I’m personally afraid of ending up in a nursing home & plan to make arrangements to reduce the probability of such.
My impression is the West hasn’t traditionally revered elders as highly as some other societies, but in the distant past the West revered elders more than we do now.