Elderly skipping meals to save cash

[Skandi]

A poll of 1,200 people aged over 60 showed one in five misses a meal while two-fifths are struggling to afford essential items and are cutting back on electricity and gas and socialising.

Older people are not confident the Government will help them deal with the current recession and many are going to extreme measures to cope, putting their health at risk, Age Concern and Help the Aged said.


more (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090415/tuk-elderly-skipping-meals-to-save-cash-dba1618.html)

[Loki]

It is strange in our European societies, that old people often have to fend for themselves. Their children mostly don't care. In Asian and African cultures, this is very different. Old people are respected by their family and taken care of in the best of ways. White people generally don't respect their elderly it seems, because they have no use any more.

[Manifest Destiny]

It is strange in our European societies, that old people often have to fend for themselves. Their children mostly don't care. In Asian and African cultures, this is very different. Old people are respected by their family and taken care of in the best of ways. White people generally don't respect their elderly it seems, because they have no use any more.

I think a part of this is because in Western nations there are pensions and things of that nature (such as Social Security and Medicare in the US). A lot of people probably just assume that the economic needs of the elderly are already being met and don't really put much thought into it.

[Groenewolf]

I think a part of this is because in Western nations there are pensions and things of that nature (such as Social Security and Medicare in the US). A lot of people probably just assume that the economic needs of the elderly are already being met and don't really put much thought into it.

Indeed, a growing individualism and a growing idea that the goverment should take care of it is probaly the cause of this.

[SwordoftheVistula]

The elderly here are the wealthiest segment of the population. In the UK, we see one of these stories once a month or so about elderly starving, freezing, or whatever. Why the difference-did British employers not offer pensions and health care? And how does this compare to the rest of Europe, generation-wise how is wealth distributed?