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Warehousing America’s Senior Citizens
Some delightful boxes, some not so much, but warehouses no matter how they are packaged
I rewatched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark the other day. After all the bravado, swashbuckling, and thwarting the Evil Empire, the revered (spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie) Ark of the Covenant is crated and stored in a huge warehouse of other presumed fantastic treasures.
America warehouses our elderly just like the government warehoused the Ark of the Covenant.
It starts with 55 and older communities.
Sold to us as carefree existences with people of our own age these 55+ communities have more in common with leper colonies than the glossy brochures of happily active seniors. Put the unwanted and unclean in remote, often walled, exile communities to live out their lives out of view of the rest of society.
These are relatively wealthy citizens warehoused with all their talents, connections, achievements, and lifetime of collecting wisdom.
The arrangement gives comfort to family members that the seniors are with their people and living in comfort, not too unlike the comfort given to the relatives of the infected.
