We neglect the elderly
By Rowan Pelling
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 20/02/2008
Since most people with private pensions or savings, however modest, don't qualify for free state provision and the 65-plus demographic is rapidly growing, care of the elderly seems certain to become a major election issue.
I wonder, however, if any of our politicians will be brave enough to talk about familial duties towards older relatives. We are obsessed as a society with parental obligation to unruly offspring to the point that we've entirely neglected filial duty.
Nowadays the idea of the elderly being a "burden" has gained widespread currency - a notion given weight by a society that increasingly views pensioners as an inconvenience.
The way we legislate and provide state care is entirely tilted at further fragmenting disintegrating communities. Nobody has suggested truly radical tax breaks in return for caring for such dependants; no one has proposed that social censure, if not the full force of the law, should be levelled at those who abandon loving parents in the same way it would be if they deserted their children.
Abridged.
SOURCE: thetelegraphUK
--------------------------------
Interesting comments at source site.
No comments:
Post a Comment