Being Mortal

(Martin Jones) #1

“Ratsandmice overruntheplace.... Fliesswarm[the]
foode....Therearenobathtubs.”A 1909 Virginiareport
described elderly people dying untended, receiving
inadequate nutrition and care, and contracting
tuberculosis from uncontrolled contagion. Funds were
chronicallyinadequatefordisabledcare.Inonecase,the
reportnoted,awarden,facedwithawomanwhotended
towanderoffandnostafftomindher,madehercarrya
twenty-eight-pound ball and chain.


Nothing provoked greater terror for theaged thanthe
prospectofsuchinstitutions.Nonetheless,bythe1920s
and 1930s, when Alice and Richmond Hobson were
young, two-thirds of poorhouseresidents were elderly.
GildedAgeprosperityhadsparkedembarrassmentabout
theseconditions. ThentheGreatDepression sparked a
nationwide protest movement. Elderly middle-class
peoplewho’dworkedandsavedalltheirlivesfoundtheir
savingswipedout. In1935,withthepassageofSocial
Security,theUnitedStatesjoinedEuropein creatinga
systemofnationalpensions.Suddenlyawidow’sfuture
was secure, and retirement, once the exclusive
provenance of the rich, became a mass phenomenon.


In time, poorhouses passed from memory in the
industrialized world, but they persist elsewhere. In
developing countries, they have become common,
because economicgrowth is breaking upthe extended
familywithoutyetproducingtheaffluencetoprotectthe
elderlyfrompovertyandneglect.InIndia,Ihavenoticed
that the existence of such places is often
unacknowledged, but ona recent visitto NewDelhiI

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