Subject: What has become of them ?
And so they inch forward with 'market solutions' to cover the withdrawal of the national conscience regarding how we fund the care of old people.The system used to share the costs, much as an insurance companies do with their insurance policy's by spreading their expenditure over a large number of policy holders. Now with taxation being a sacred cow, the Tory's have decided to fund old age health care by the individual pensioner paying for their care by taking equity in the house they live in. If all goes to plan, your house rather than a hospital or an old people's home will become your caring centre until you die and then, on your death it will be sold to pay for the care workers who visited your home in the latter days of your life.
I have commented before about the closure of affordable old people's accommodation. This used to be the responsibility of the municipality, paid for through the rates. It was our western solution to caring for the elderly who, in Eastern cultures are cared for by sons and daughters in their own homes.
The 'Old Aged Home' which catered for many ordinary old people, some of which I had worked in, have disappeared. Now as I drive along the street the buildings are gone, sold off to property developers. "Where", one asks "are the old dears now, who is caring for them" ?
The council members in the Borough I speak of, pride themselves in being Labour and one have thought representative of the old. Under their watch these 'community homes' have been demolished. The people in them were people who were clearly not wealthy. They wouldn't have the resources to move into a private home so where did they go ?
As a society we seem to have been conditioned not to care. We have been encouraged to turn a blind eye to the financial demise of people who have not been able to set aside the cash to fund their own care.A situation which would have been politically unacceptable 30/40 years ago. It was traditional with municipality help that the rate payers, you and me, acknowledge that we were all destined to get old and frail and therefore we all collectively accepted the cost of maintaining these homes
And then came the tantra, "markets knew best" when it comes to finance and the efficiency required to run these organisations. And so began the slippery slide to where we are today.
Step 1. Enlist shareholders.
Sep 2. The shareholders first action is to sack the existing municipal workers since these often long standing employees were expensive with their own well funded pension pot. Sacking them relieved the municipality not only of its substantial monthly contribution but also its eventual responsibility to meet an onerous pension payment.
Step 3. To recruit, in their place, those jewels of the east (cheap labour), mostly from the Philippians on short or no term contracts.
Step 4. Finally the realisation that the real estate, land right in amongst the community became the focus of attention (as it had been from the moment the shareholders were brought in) and a sale price put around its neck which was impossible to resist.
Capitalism at its most productive and notice, no mention of the "inmates" no mention of the vulnerable old people bewildered by what was going on with no representation and certainly no consultation.
What has become of them. I have asked many municipal employees but no one seems to care. It's hard enough keeping your job as the Council continue to down size and wage rises are a thing of the past. There are no claims from Society as a whole to know since old age and the claims it makes, with longevity and dementia merging into a terrible dilemma, not only for the afflicted but also for accountants balancing the books.
What has become of them.Like a poem describing the Somme or the magnificent poem by Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" they are the forgotten people.
Please click and read this
No comments:
Post a Comment