For the small minority, no kids, no spouse, what's your plan?

[haha]

We hear this over and over and over. What do old people have against other old people?

Death.

 

[irishgal]

I imagine people are wondering why I harped on this topic in this way, but it really is relevant to the OP. The OP has to do with the dilemma of not having close family members or friends to count on when you are very old.

In addition, it would appear that when you are very old, even people your own age won't want to have anything to do with you. Am I the only one who finds this rather distressing?

I don't believe I said I had no friends, I do have many but I would not expect any of them to help me unless they were being paid.

To your other question, no, I don't find the fact that when I'm super old people won't want to be around me. That's the beauty of being an introvert.


Wild Irish Rogue

 

[redduck]

<snip>
It doesn't make sense...why don't old people want to be around others who are going through the same things and will understand?

Cancer victims, alcoholics, people of every description seek out the support of others who are going through the same stuff. Why should old people be different?

It's complicated.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Perhaps many of us just don't want to be around people who are all in the same age group, even our own, whether all old or all young. And maybe it's like being around kids--we might like some kids but not all of them.

 

[razztazz]

It doesn't make sense...why don't old people want to be around others who are going through the same things and will understand?

Cancer victims, alcoholics, people of every description seek out the support of others who are going through the same stuff. Why should old people be different?

From my perspective it's because I know that today's "old people" are the same people I went to high school with, the same people I lived in a barracks with, the same peer group I had to earn a living with all those years. I didn't exactly groove to their nonsense then. The last thing I want to do is finish out my life with the same people/monkeys talking the same crapolla.


True story:

Happened to me just a
few months ago. Was talking to a guy who said he was 40. He was very
surprised when I told him I was about to turn 58. I said: “What?
You mean I don't look 58”? He says: “It's not just the way you
look. It's the way you act and talk. You don't sound like all these
other old, slow, dumb m***-f**'s.”

Half of me felt really good about
someone almost 20 yrs younger thinking I come across so much
younger than I am. The other half of me said: “Nice way to talk
about old people.

I figure if I come across that youthful to somebody almost 20 yrs younger, I don't stand much chance living among the old, the slow, the ........

 

[braumeister]

You don't sound like all these
other old, slow, dumb m***-f**'s.”

Well, not all of them anyway.



j/k

 

[Amethyst]

This is an interesting perspective. I heartily agree. The enforced group living may be unavoidable, but at least there should be some kind of virtual reality thing going on, to maintain the illusion that you are not surrounded by the same people you didn't even like when they were young!

From my perspective it's because I know that today's "old people" are the same people I went to high school with, the same people I lived in a barracks with, the same peer group I had to earn a living with all those years. I didn't exactly groove to their nonsense then. The last thing I want to do is finish out my life with the same people/monkeys talking the same crapolla.


..

 

[youbet]

The enforced group living may be unavoidable

It's avoidable if you can afford it.

To me, One of the biggest pluses of being wealthy as a geezer (I'm not. Wealthy that is. I am a geezer) is that you can afford assisted living accommodations where your privacy, and to some extent your independence, is maintained to whatever extent you want it to be. The usual "group living" exists to maximize efficiencies of delivering needed services. If you don't need those efficiencies, you don't need the group living.

 

[Amethyst]

But you're still up a creek as far as going out to meet people of different ages is concerned, are you not? If they don't visit you, you are either alone, or associating with the dreaded "Old People," right?

It's avoidable if you can afford it.

To me, One of the biggest pluses of being wealthy as a geezer (I'm not. Wealthy that is. I am a geezer) is that you can afford assisted living accommodations where your privacy, and to some extent your independence, is maintained to whatever extent you want it to be. The usual "group living" exists to maximize efficiencies of delivering needed services. If you don't need those efficiencies, you don't need the group living.

 

[Amethyst]

Somebody from genuinely Assisted Living needs to get on his or her computer and report what it's like. We get one perspective from our parents, who may just be letting off steam because they know we love them...but a resident's point of view would be a lot more authentic.