Reply #120: Japan, Checking on Its Oldest, Finds Many Gone [View All]

[Zenlitened]

Hmmm.... Combine a moribund economy, millions of people no longer "needed" to do what work there is, add in the vulnerability that often comes with age... and you get fraud, neglect and missing persons. Imagine that!

But, hey... at least the mythology has been held intact. Er, um, that is... up to now.

This story in today's New York Times caught my eye for a number of reasons. One of them being the current "debate" over Social Security here in the USA.

TOKYO — Japan has long boasted of having many of the world’s oldest people — testament, many here say, to a society with a superior diet and a commitment to its elderly that is unrivaled in the West.

That was before the police found the body of a man thought to be one of Japan’s oldest, at 111 years, mummified in his bed, dead for more than three decades. His daughter, now 81, hid his death to continue collecting his monthly pension payments, the police said.

Alarmed, local governments began sending teams to check on other elderly residents. What they found so far has been anything but encouraging.

...To date, the authorities have been unable to find more than 281 Japanese who had been listed in records as 100 years old or older.

Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/world/asia/15japan.html?_r=1&hp

It's been my experience that most old folks (particularly the extremely old) don't want much. A comfortable chair with a decent view, a patch of ground to stroll around on and maybe tend a few plants. A few friends and loved ones to talk to.

Most don't want the obscenely intrusive, expensive and ultimately pointless end-of-life medical "care" that we somehow consider normal in the U.S. today.

A good life... some peace, quiet and simple enjoyments toward the end... and a dignified exit. That's all most people want.

But the Billionaire Boys, with their seething hatred off all things FDR, can't abide the thought of them having even that. Why? Because the Billionaire Boys are just evil little shits, who take take take and consider people, even whole communities, as merely something for them to exploit, use up and discard.

We've got to remember: Virtually everything the Billionaire Boys are screeching about Social Security is a LIE. Not a difference of opinion or perspective. They're telling flat-out lies.

And they've got to be stopped.