8 ms·
I usually read the comments first but this time I read the article first because there weren't any comments yet. I was aghast. Then I saw I wasn't alone when I
by edw519 9y ago
I usually read the comments first but this time I read the article first because there weren't any comments yet. I was aghast. Then I saw I wasn't alone when I read the comments from you guys.
How could something so horrible happen to so many so routinely? Any what can we techies do about it? I'm always searching for meaning in my work and I'm having trouble remembering anything I've worked on lately that's nearly as important as this issue.
Then I realized that the solution is already in the article:
In the course of his thirty-five-year career, Shafer has assumed control of more than three thousand wards and estates and trained a generation of guardians.
and
When Concetta Mormon, a wealthy woman who owned a Montessori school, became Shafer’s ward because she had aphasia, Shafer sold the school midyear, even though students were enrolled.
and
Parks and other private guardians appeared to gravitate toward patients who had considerable assets.
It's all about the money! They don't go after poor people.
How can we high achievers turn this into a business opportunity that's a win-win-win for everyone and put the bad guys out of business? It's almost like we need a watsi for senior citizens. Thoughts?
- gaelenh 9y agoMy parents shrewdly and pre-emptively reorganized their "estate" (feels silly calling their meager savings that) with a lawyer that specializes in this. In Central Florida, their are enough retires that many know what's at stake (RE: OP article, plus other money grabs when elderly required assisted living), and lawyers have setup to attempt to prevent it. While listening to my dad explain it all, I wrote down "Stripe Atlas for old people's estates" in my idea notebook. Another poster mentioned setting up nested LLC's, just a service to scale and productize it. Not just for the elderly either, I can think of a lot of people that would want the protection and power of obscuring money that real estate developers and politicians have benefited from for years. It would be a real game changer.
- lozenge 9y agoIt could quickly be mimicked by less scrupulous people though?
- ringaroundthetx 9y ago> Not just for the elderly either, I can think of a lot of people that would want the protection and power of obscuring money that real estate developers and politicians have benefited from for years. It would be a real game changer. We live in a world where private persons and business entities no longer require bank accounts and can nominally hold cryptocurrency like bitcoin and Monero, or stable value cryptocurrencies, without anybody knowing. The world you imagine already exists, and doesn't require a new startup or incremental half steps to make it exist. This is knowledge you can accept or reject now to wait till 2040 when the people that didn't reject it are now being pulled through the courts in divorce proceedings, estate reorganizations, or are in the political limelight.
- vijayr 9y agowatsi for senior citizens That is a good idea, but personally I am torn. Something like this shouldn't be allowed to happen in the first place, isn't it?
- gertef 9y agoThose wealthy people can spend some of their wealth to hire reputable maangers, or donate their wealth to communal funds so they aren't a target. Hunger for wealth and control makes one a target.