YOU DON'T WANT to be old and poor and alone, but thanks to the 1%, that's the fate for a lot of North Americans, if the fascists have their way. Our Head Fascist, Stevie, intends to build prisons for lots of new inmates. Well, when life hands you a lemon, the creative make lemonaid.
Thus this report from Keith Veronese at io9: "If you are elderly and poor, prison is better than a retirement home". Better? Go figure. But Keith does make some cogent points, along with an important tip for Americans: do a Federal crime, so you live in a Federal prison, not a State prison, where things can be ghastly.
Considering the horror stories from retirement homes for the aged indigent, it ain't stupid if it works.
So there's bars, you probably can't see 'em anyway, without your glasses, and it's nice to be able to hear something shut without your hearing aid, medical care is great in comparison and the food actually isn't toxic, unlike your last retirement "home", where the key to survival was as much take-out and kettle-food as your pension would buy.
This last point I have seen, in a retirement home charging relatively big bucks, believe it or not: wanna stay alive? Don't eat the chow, or drink from any of the institution's cups, glasses, even with your own stuff, without washing first; e-coli's a stone bitch, then there's viruses.
So there's bars, you probably can't see 'em anyway, without your glasses, and it's nice to be able to hear something shut without your hearing aid, medical care is great in comparison and the food actually isn't toxic, unlike your last retirement "home", where the key to survival was as much take-out and kettle-food as your pension would buy.
This last point I have seen, in a retirement home charging relatively big bucks, believe it or not: wanna stay alive? Don't eat the chow, or drink from any of the institution's cups, glasses, even with your own stuff, without washing first; e-coli's a stone bitch, then there's viruses.
Killing off the
clientele to save housekeeping costs is a bit brusque, but there's always more poor
old people (aka "tuna" to those in the biz), so from a dispassionate
management's view, it makes exquisitely logical sense, besides, it's cold season
anyway.
In the early 70's, when I spent a few years in private radio, I did a series of reports on this following a rash of suicides in Ottawa old age homes.
ReplyDeleteIn one I compared Ontario's Extended Care Nursing Home Act standards with those of our penitentiary service and the requirements stipulated by the Geneva Conventions.
It was clear that, if you were to be confined to a room anyway, you would probably find a cell more to your liking. Better food, entertainment, health care and even companionship in prison.
When I looked at the Geneva Conventions I found that the minimum standards stipulated for the treatment and care of POWs exceeded those of the Nursing Home Act.
My conclusion? If you're alone, in dire straits, and facing being institutionalized in an old age home, better commit a serious criminal offence and spend your remaining years in the greater comforts of prison.