Kia ora, my Auntie Olive died last Friday and today I heard someone on the radio grizzling about the old age problem. It seems we are the problem because we’re living too long.
Olive was 93, she’d lived in her own home till she went to hospital a couple of weeks ago. She cooked and cleaned and looked after herself, she paid rates, she paid tax, donated to various charities, she helped people out when they needed it. She was a great cook and very hospitable. She wasn’t a reader, and she didn’t care all much for social occasions in later years although she took people out to dinner occasionally. She had some prejudices, some strong likes and dislikes; she loved her garden. She had some good friends who took her to the supermarket, visited for a chat and maybe a gin and tonic. She didn’t like being referred to as an ‘old-age problem’.
I don’t think politicians or other people realise when they talk so blithely about the old-age problem how much it hurts. Is it an old-age problem? Can we control how long we live? Is it us who’s bending every effort to prolong life?
We all contribute to society, we’ve all paid tax and rates and still do.
I don’t think its an ‘old-age’ problem – I think its part of a social contract that was made, and its clear that the bar has to be lifted for when we start getting what I still refer to as ‘the pension’ but are we the problem?
Renée
