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> care that our economic system has made basically impossible for their children and extended families to perform I don't wanna take care of my parents; I blam

> care that our economic system has made basically impossible for their children and extended families to perform I don't wanna take care of my parents; I blame society. I don't wanna have kids; I blame society. We really can't keep letting society get away with all this.

llamaimperative 2y ago
This is just a snarky way of saying “incentives drive behavior” which, of course, is actually true and when incentives yield bad outcomes we should interrogate the system that produces them.
bzmrgonz 2y ago
Establish UBI and then we can blame families for not wanting to care for their elders, but until capitalism demands dual-income to sustain the nuclear family... we can't unfold that blame blanket you're proposing.
silverquiet 2y ago
I can’t have kids; I’m single.
- malfist 2y ago
  Not with that attitude you won't.
binary132 2y ago
The reality is that right now, most people need to work full-time-plus just to get by. My wife and I have a bunch of kids. We are also the only ones who will be meaningfully sorting out care for our parents. I am fortunate to be able to provide enough support to make it work. I also don’t feel confident that when we’re also responsible for caring for all four of our parents, there’s going to be enough of our time and energy to manage it along with my work, especially if there are more little ones or medical issues at that time. It’s important to be realistic. And again, I’m an outlier. Most people have fewer resources to devote to it.
linotype 2y ago
Even if I did want to have kids, I wouldn’t have them to take care of me in old age. What if they move to Japan? Should I have them move back to the US to take care of me? Nah, we should build a society that can and does take care of its elderly.
- RestlessMind 2y ago
  If your own kids are not going to care for you, why should someone else's kids?
  - xigoi 2y ago
    Because the someone else’s kids had a choice?
  - linotype 2y ago
    What if your kids pre-decease you?
- CapricornNoble 2y ago
  I moved to Japan 13 years ago. My mother developed early-onset Alzheimer's in 2021, and I'm her only child. I relocated her to Japan. It has been immensely stressful but I know she's getting better care and this also avoided the US healthcare system completely bankrupting our family and robbing us of our chance to build multi-generational wealth. But living in a country with an outsized elderly population/terrible demographics, I can clearly see how the problem will eventually cripple most economies without significant technological augmentation. Large multi-generational families living in very close proximity at least provides for essentially unpaid labor who can share the burdens to prevent caregiver burnout.
  - binary132 2y ago
    And I’m saying technological augmentation will not be enough to avoid that fate
- mindslight 2y ago

llamaimperative 2y ago

This is just a snarky way of saying “incentives drive behavior” which, of course, is actually true and when incentives yield bad outcomes we should interrogate the system that produces them.

bzmrgonz 2y ago

Establish UBI and then we can blame families for not wanting to care for their elders, but until capitalism demands dual-income to sustain the nuclear family... we can't unfold that blame blanket you're proposing.

silverquiet 2y ago

I can’t have kids; I’m single.

malfist 2y ago
Not with that attitude you won't.

binary132 2y ago

The reality is that right now, most people need to work full-time-plus just to get by. My wife and I have a bunch of kids. We are also the only ones who will be meaningfully sorting out care for our parents. I am fortunate to be able to provide enough support to make it work. I also don’t feel confident that when we’re also responsible for caring for all four of our parents, there’s going to be enough of our time and energy to manage it along with my work, especially if there are more little ones or medical issues at that time. It’s important to be realistic. And again, I’m an outlier. Most people have fewer resources to devote to it.

linotype 2y ago

Even if I did want to have kids, I wouldn’t have them to take care of me in old age. What if they move to Japan? Should I have them move back to the US to take care of me? Nah, we should build a society that can and does take care of its elderly.

RestlessMind 2y ago
If your own kids are not going to care for you, why should someone else's kids?
- xigoi 2y ago
  Because the someone else’s kids had a choice?
- linotype 2y ago
  What if your kids pre-decease you?
CapricornNoble 2y ago
I moved to Japan 13 years ago. My mother developed early-onset Alzheimer's in 2021, and I'm her only child. I relocated her to Japan. It has been immensely stressful but I know she's getting better care and this also avoided the US healthcare system completely bankrupting our family and robbing us of our chance to build multi-generational wealth. But living in a country with an outsized elderly population/terrible demographics, I can clearly see how the problem will eventually cripple most economies without significant technological augmentation. Large multi-generational families living in very close proximity at least provides for essentially unpaid labor who can share the burdens to prevent caregiver burnout.
- binary132 2y ago
  And I’m saying technological augmentation will not be enough to avoid that fate
mindslight 2y ago