[acb-hsp] Heaven Help the Aged

[peter altschul]

Heaven Help the Aged
  9/5/2011 Ken Connor
  They say there are only two sure things in life: death and 
taxes.  Thanks to unbelievable gains in medical technology in 
recent years however, most Americans are now able to delay the 
former inevitability for decades longer than their ancestors.
  Because of this, at a time when America's real estate industry 
is struggling, therebs one market sector thatbs proving to be 
recession proof: senior housing.
  According to a recent article in the New York Times "[d]emand 
for nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and retirement 
communities is expected to balloon in the next two decades as 
baby boomers retire and the incidence of progressive illnesses 
like Alzheimer's disease increases.
  The number of Americans over the age of 65 is expected to 
double to 71 million by 2030, and 7.7 million of them will suffer 
from Alzheimer's disease, a 50 percent increase from today, 
according to the Alzheimer's Association.
  In the words of one industry insider, "it's a great time to 
develop senior housing."
  Why the commodification of aging?
  Well, as the article points out, America is undergoing a 
remarkable demographic shift that is changing the face of our 
nation.
  Because people are generally having fewer children, there are 
fewer young people to take care of their aging parents.
  There are more elderly men and women requiring long-term care 
and fewer young people to provide it.
  Thus, the only resource available to meet this need -- aside 
from our crumbling entitlement infrastructure, of course -- is 
the profit-driven real-estate industry.
  This is how denigrated the aged have become in our culture's 
eyes.
  Because we have failed to enact responsible entitlement reform, 
and because we have increasingly eschewed traditional family 
arrangements in favor of a uni-generational, "me, myself, and I" 
mentality, the fate of our parents and grandparents now rests in 
the hands of an industry that time and again has chosen the 
bottom line over the health and welfare of its elderly wards.
  Indeed, many today speak of the elderly as if they are merely 
parasites draining our time and money.
  Older men and women are often treated with little respect.
  I see it every day in my law practice, where I frequently 
represent men and women who are victims of nursing home abuse and 
neglect.
  Weak and helpless elders are at the mercy of caregivers who are 
often underqualified and overworked.
  The result is an epidemic of preventable pressure sores, 
malnutrition, dehydration, and falls among the institutionalized 
elderly.
  There is no doubt that the Roe very.  Wade ethic has had a 
striking effect on how we view the aged.
  Other than the unborn, no single age group in the United States 
suffers from a diminished view of the value of human life more 
than the elderly.
  Rather than viewing our aging relatives as persons worthy of 
our utmost reverence and care, Roe has taught us to look at other 
people in terms perceived convenience.
  If someone is wanted -- if we feel that they contribute to our 
overall quality of life -- then their life has worth; if not, it 
is permissible to store them away somewhere for others to care 
for until they die.  Out of sight, out of mind.
  Now that we are facing a future where elderly men and women 
will be seen as economically inconvenient, where some will be 
unwanted and unloved, and where many will lack the mental or 
physical capacity to defend themselves, it is clear that the 
elderly are in danger of abuse, neglect, or perhaps even worse...  
unless of course they are lucky enough to afford a unit in one of 
the new, ultra-luxurious assisted living facilities currently 
under construction in some of the nationbs wealthier enclaves.
  Will we allow ourselves to see our mothers and fathers, our 
grandparents as inconveniences to be managed, or as people who 
are to be nurtured, cared for, and cherished?
  Will we see the dignity in their lives even when they are no 
longer "useful" to us? Will we love them regardless of their 
abilities, recalling the intergenerational debts that bind us 
all?
  In the increasingly utilitarian age in which we live -- an age 
where moral absolutes are mocked and the notion of transcendent 
truths is ridiculed -- the answer to these questions can be 
terrifying.  Heaven help the aged when even money ceases to be an 
effective bargaining chip and society forgets them completely.
  Ken Connor is Chairman of the Center for a Just Society.