Elderly Japanese Women are Committing Petty Crimes to Go to Prison

[Cleopatra7]

In one of the Turpin family threads people were asking whether more communally orientated societies like Japan dona better job of taking care of vulnerable people. If this article is any indication, the answer is no:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-16/japan-s-prisons-are-a-haven-for-elderly-women

The elderly population in Japan is so large that many, especially women, have no families to take care of them and meager welfare payments to help them out. Consequently, some elderly women are shoplifting to get the bare necessities they need to live. When they get caught, they don’t regret going to prison, because they get three meals a day, medical care, and the company of other elderly women. It’s another example of how prisons are used to hide a problem (poverty and desperation among senior citizens in this case) as opposed to actually solving the root cause.

[Briefly]

That is really sad. I tried to see it from their point of view, and I can see why they don't regret being sent to jail. It's just still sad.

[anjulibai]

This made me call my gramma, who lives alone with her two dogs. I need to call her more. 

[chaotic life]

Geesh never thought I would see nursing homes as a blessing before

[ViolaSebastian]

It makes me wonder if this is what the U.S. has in store for itself as our population continues to age. With women in my generation and the next (Z and Millennial) increasingly choosing to be childless (either for personal or economic reasons), a lack of opportunity to save for retirement, and Medicare and social security ever an increasingly dicey possibility in our old age, I would not be surprised if we start to see elderly women in the U.S. choosing this route. Just awful. 

[Someone Out There]

I didn't think it was just women.  I thought that both  males and females were doing petty crime to get 3 meals and a place to sleep.  @chaotic life There are nursing homes in Japan, I'm not sure how much it costs, or if you need to qualify for them (I know in Australia you need to qualify for them).

[Briefly]

10 hours ago, chaotic life said:

Geesh never thought I would see nursing homes as a blessing before

While there are still some that are bad, they have improved quite a bit over the last couple of decades. But they are like anything else, run be people and anyone considering one really needs to do the research. But I don't think that they are inexpensive.

[Cleopatra7]

18 hours ago, ViolaSebastian said:

It makes me wonder if this is what the U.S. has in store for itself as our population continues to age. With women in my generation and the next (Z and Millennial) increasingly choosing to be childless (either for personal or economic reasons), a lack of opportunity to save for retirement, and Medicare and social security ever an increasingly dicey possibility in our old age, I would not be surprised if we start to see elderly women in the U.S. choosing this route. Just awful. 

Most of the women profiled in the article had children , but they were too wrapped up in their own nuclear family issues to pay attention to the older generation. Having children doesn’t constitute an automatic social safety net for the elderly, especially in a cutthroat capitalistic society where economically unproductive family members become a burden.