The Social Safety Net

 Poverty, homelessness, or near homelessness are especially daunting if one is elderly, disabled, or chronically ill. In fact it basically is tantamount to a slow death. 

One can starve to death, die from exposure, be killed by predatory humans, or die of medical issues without treatment. Most especially if they wind up in the street homeless.

We are accustomed to the propaganda that America is a land of milk and honey, that the things I just mentioned cant happen here. But they do, all the time. People are found dead in houses, alleys, fields, or streets every day.  There are lots of suicides. And pompous self righteous Americans brush these off as "druggies, bums, or trash". Most of the time it isnt even reported in news.

I personally have seen people wind up discarded by family, society, or the failing systems many times since the mid 1980s. 

The first eye opener for me was clearing the effects of a mentally ill man who died in a shack in a poor part of town back in the late 80s. In his left behind belongings were two binders, filled with letters and newspaper clippings, pictures of him and Presidents, Congressmen. He had been an official at a major Federal Government Department years before. Bipolar Disorder destroyed his life. Nor was he an isolated example. Iv known teachers and others downed by mental illess, dementia, and disabilty.  No one is immune.

The last person I encoutered slumped against a wall in an alley on a cold wet Febuary morning 5 years ago, covering himself with a trash bag, was an old man. He had been turned out of his house by younger family members and would have died - a very common thing. I found a caring neighbor who took him in.

All it takes is loss of income or the death of a spouse; and things snowball in a hurry.

Over the years I have met countless people in Nursing Homes who had been fortunate enough to be given safety and care. A large number had been tossed in the wastebin of society after exploitation, impoverishment, or crippling mental or physical illness. The fortunate ones wind up in Nursing Homes. No one seems to give a damn about the old or disabled.

Those who didnt wind up in the street lived in poverty, often not eating for days or eating moldy food, dog or cat food, having to do without life sustaining medicenes, and victimized by other people.

One can readily grasp why the elderly and disabled are currently so scared that the last resource they have, the thing that helps prevent absolute starvation, poverty, homelessness, is at risk. 

While Social Security checks and Medicare/Medicaid  are sufficient to provide most basics for frugal survival, they are on the chopping block so that ultra rich men can reciece more tax breaks.

Nursing Homes have become the last safety net in America. So in that regard even a bad Nursing Home is better than being helpless and homeless. 

We are very nervous. Our lives are held in the balance for political agendas. And indeed we have already been threatened.