Alexis wrote:

“I know people who would rather die than get stuffed into a nursing home.”

While this is true, medical care now enables people to reach the status of the “old old” demographic group. At this stage, assisted living (proper daily meds, skin care, personal care, etc.) becomes a humane option. And it’s pretty expensive. (I guess you could look at the enterprise as income distribution to the poorly paid, low-education care facility workers, just as yacht construction is income distribution to highly skilled boat craftsmen.)

Medical technology is taking us way beyond the traditional “three-score and ten.” Who will pay for the extension? The Village, I guess. At which point your being against increased entitlements will be the equivalent of killing off someone’s grandma.

As a culture, we don’t have a good relationship with, as St. Francis called it, Sister Death.