5 ms·

Eh, not true. Communities looked after their elderly. We've just removed any aspect of community from society. Individualism to a fault is causing these problem

• danny_codes 4y ago
  Totally agree. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and it seems there are many causes. Increased ability to move, and desirability of moving (school, jobs, exploration). Bad city design (at least in North America, we have a car problem) meaning it's difficult to have a local community. The decline in religious involvement and no replacement lined up. A culture of extreme individualism to the point of absurdity. These all seem tractable, but it is sad that we've let it get to this point. I feel there is a shifting in the wind though. At least for younger people, American capitalism and individualism seems to be viewed with increasing skepticism.
• drekipus 4y ago
  Yes, totally agree with that.
• sershe 4y ago
  The answer is much simpler, there used to be much less elderly per working person (and that only covers modern times, too, in a country with massive in-migration of new working people; plus it's obvious it's going to get worse): http://vis.stanford.edu/jheer/d3/pyramid/shift.html http://vis.stanford.edu/jheer/d3/pyramid/shift.html That is also why Social Security seemed like a good idea at one time.