Why are old people undervalued and treated so badly?

Question

Well, Rotifer. I hope you have a self-destruct button for when you hit 60. What a load of self-centered claptrap.

Grrrrrrrrr

Answer 1

there are some people who value the old.
we learn from them, we all have older members of our family so we love them too.
i think some disregard them because as we get older we revert back to being child like needing more care. some can't be bothered to give that care.
i no my role with my mum has turned around! she looked after me for many years, now i look after her, she is 74 has cancer, arthritis and is virtually blind.
old people are easy targets for the evil people who take advantage of them.
god bless them all x

Answer 2

All I am trying to do is get minimal help with some repairs on my home. Even if it is with a grant or a low interest loan but in Texas there is zero help for senior citizens that are not on government assisted programs. I live on s.s. and can survive but not when an emergency home repair is needed. Only then do I need help. I worked more than 50 years before I had to retire. My health is average but bad legs and knees keep me from working. I am a widow and my husbands very lengthy illness put us in bankruptcy so my home is all I have left. Now with electrical problems and a leaky roof I need a little help but in Texas there is not any. My husband was a veteran of the viet nam war and everyone knows how they were treated. Even when he was sick he could not get any help .

Answer 3

Part of the problem lies with the fact that they are living much longer. In the UK for example - and no doubt in other western countries this is similar - pensioners get free prescriptions for drugs which keep them going for much longer (in ill heath) than they would live naturally, while younger people with chronic/terminal health problems have to pay for them. Old age is a natural process, and to try and prevent it is only going to skew the population massively in favour of the elderly, thus causing huge tax increases for the working population, which is going to be reduced further by working people on low/middle incomes being forced to have only one or no children because they are paying too much tax to afford to raise them. I am happy to give pensioners higher pensions in order to keep them in relative comfort, and stop them dying of hypothermia, but they have to realise that they are taking far more than they ever gave, and they should not receive taxpayers' money for symptoms of old age, only actual diseases. By taking drugs for osteoporosis etc. they are not only causing a massive burden to the taxpayers, they are also increasing their chances of having dementia, having to go into residential care and becoming a cash cow for a care home and leaving nothing to their (possibly long-suffering) children. And they didn't have to support such a high ratio of elderly when they were taxpayers. And most of them didn't fight in WW2, since the majority are old women. So they can stop their whingeing about low pensions and how they didn't ask to live so long.

Answer 4

Old people are often rude and always get in the way in City Centres. They choke up our Post Offices and buses and are always trying to skip the queue in the supermarket. Many of them never say please or thankyou and seem to have a massive chip on their shoulders. Some of them are nice, like my Nana, but generally they're a load of tea swilling, biscuit junkies.

Hey! Old people - treat other people how you would like to be treated yourself. The world doesn't owe you a favour!

Answer 5

Because they are old.
They think differently, act differntly, like different things and are generally not like the younger people.
And todays young generation is highly intolerant. They don't like anyone who's not like them.

And since they are old, they might need some hel, which noone is willing to give. People have forgotten their moral values in todays greedy rat race. It is sad.

I guess you'll be old some day and smell of piss too, hun, coffey s?

Answer 6

Because most of America is built on a individualistic soceity and many people (young people especially) think like this "if the elderly aren't beneficial to anyone then what is the point of keeping them around, it's not like they are helping me learn anything new or do anything better for myself" and due to that manetality many suffer.

Answer 7

It depends on where you live, but in the US there is a cult of youth. The media entertainment programs are full of young single people. Advertisers target the younger people. By default the older people become marginalized.

Answer 8

Because people - young and old alike - are tendentially selfish and irrational. Anyway, you can get along fine with some older people and learn from them, whereas others will teach you nothing of interest. It depends and it's the same for younger people.

Answer 9

After having read most of the answers,just a little observation:
Remember old Chinese saying 'old age is terrible thing,but alternative worse' !!

Answer 10

We could all pretend to love old people but you wouldn't want to be stuck in a lift with one, would you?

Answer 11

It really annoys me as many pensioners fought in WW2 for our freedom and rights! They gave their tomorrow for our today!