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Traditionally, we've been "paying" by having a dozen children so that four or so would survive long enough to take care of their parents.

• nosianu 4y ago
  That's not all of it. A large amount of people just "fell through" and died in the gutters when they were old, or they lived in some minimum accommodation with minimum food provided by their community, e.g. "poorhouse" ("Armenhaus" - German, a direct translation). Not even family might protect you: There is a German "Robin Hood" type that really existed whose biography I read. His children refused to let him in when he was old, they did not want to or could not share. Living with family requires that they had the space, that the family had enough income, that they actually lived together (women especially were married off, if you only had surviving daughters you depended on their husbands).