Brasfield 6-10

This section of the book was much more interesting to me because it was less about financial issues and more about the important social issues we're facing. The issue of the elderly is always sticky because no one wants to admit it, but being old is an expensive problem. It also is an inevitable problem unless voluntary euthanasia is offered in the US, but even then the numbers won't go down significantly. People think that nursing home are for the 100 year old grandmas that need help with every task. But the reality is that so many people need nursing homes as a basic safety net. If a partner passes, children move out, or a health problem arises that someone needs to be constantly close to help and care, living in a home with assistance is a necessity. The culture of children caring for their old parents is slowly passing since many parents see it as being a 'burden' to their children's lives. In today's world, children often have very different lifestyles than their parents, a main point being that now more families have to full-time working parents. Even in the home, there needs to be care for an elderly person during the 9-5 workdays. I feel that there needs to be a new level of care like assisted living did in comparison to a nursing home. What comes to mind is a community home,  with several older adults and only a few care takes. My mom always jokes about how the divorced women of my town should come together and live on a compound. It may sound bizarre and a little hippie, but it makes sense. One property tax, one cable bill, one phone line, and one yard to maintain can save a group of people thousands of dollars every year. If a major reason for people to move into nursing homes earlier is because it is too expensive to live on their own, a system like this could help those people and alleviate some of the financial pressure of paying for nursing homes.