Their life is not prolonged and they die quicker.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 91 year old mom won’t let me wipe her bottom yet but I’ll be there when she needs me to, as will my brother. She was there for me when I had to go on bed rest for two months, taking care of me and DH and even the dog. MIL thanked my mom, cooed over the babies and ran off to her sales job. I’ll never wipe her butt and she won’t be able to afford to pay for the kind of help she expects in her old age.

My elderly Mother needed me to wipe her butt. Gladly. I am grateful to be able to care for her, assist her, pat her sweet head, rub her aching shoulders, drive her to her med treatments as she suffers a terminal disease. I am happy to be in her presence and return the love she gives to me. My brothers and SIL are doing the same caring for her in turns to assist our father.

Perhaps your MIL needed that sales job? Clearly the job was not highly paid if you think she can’t afford care for herself when she is elderly. If she won’t get family help when she needs it, why would she get help when she was still able-bodied? She was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are lucky they belong to a church or other close knit community. Otherwise, no one.

This is sad. You have to assume that there are many elderly people in this position.

This is an enormous calamity rolling in.

It’s not that big a deal now because most childless elderly people have nieces and nephews.

When the only children of only children get old, we’re going to need better social services.

And having more children is not the answer. Our only realistic hope for pleasant survival is negative population growth. People who have no
children or limiting themselves to having just one are helping us alll.

We need to find ways to have negative population growth in a way that helps younger people, rather than trapping them
in dead end jobs with big tax burdens.

CMS needs our prayers (or nontheistic efforts to support it).

Anonymous wrote:I've asked my own kids (ages 10, 14, and 16) to please take care of my brother and his wife in their old age, since they have no children. (My brother and his wife are perfectly fine now at 52 years of ago, but I'm planning way ahead for the future).

I feel that we should teach our children to care for relatives (beyond just their parents).

On a side note, if a person does not have children, maybe they are less likely to be poor, since they have more time to work and earn money? So they would have some money to help with their old age?

Good luck with that.