Granny Dumping, The Halo, The Squeezed Middle Class

                                   Granny Dumping

Granny, 

Richard Quick (1860-1939)

Photo Credit: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum [CC BY-NC-ND]

…an American man took his frail father, who was suffering from dementia, on a flight from Los Angeles to the UK, where the confused old man was left at a bus station in Hereford with no way for anyone to trace his family – all to avoid having to pay for his care.

The story of 78-year old Roger Curry is a sad one, but it is an all-to common phenomenon in the US: “granny dumping”. It’s estimated that about 100,000 elderly Americans are abandoned every year, by relatives who are unable or unwilling to help look after them or pay for their care.

…This also happens to hundreds of people every year in Japan, where it is called ubasute. To cope with this, some charities have even set up a “senior citizen postbox” in recent years, a service where poor families can leave elderly parents who are taken out of their hands and allocated an old people’s home.

…Experts at AgeUK and Parkinson’s UK told i they have no knowledge of dementia sufferers being abandoned here. But amid calls to improve state provision of social care here, these stories from abroad serve as a warning.

(The i, 2019)

A warning indeed. How many years is it now since the government  said it would announce plans for the reform of social care? 


The Halo

Amazon is bringing out its first fitness tracker, a wristband called the Halo, which will eavesdrop on its owner to record if they are happy or sad based on their tone of voice.

A pair of always-on microphones will listen to users, trying to assess their mood and stress levels. After a training period, the tracker periodically listens to your speech, categorising it into an emotion such as "hopeful", "elated" or hesitant, as well as offering an overall view of your peak positive and negative periods.

A  Quack Selling Medicines
unknown artist
Photo Credit: Wellcome Collection [Public Domain]

..."Despite the rise in digital health services and devices over the last decade, we have not seen a corresponding improvement in population health in the US," said Dr Maulik Majmudar, Amazon Halo's principal medical officer. "We are using Amazon's deep expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning to offer customers a new way to discover, adopt and maintain personalised wellness habits."

(Alex Hearn, The Guardian, 2020)

Surely the good doctor is talking an absolute load of tosh?

*...Everywhere you look tech companies are devising innovative ways to place pointless metallic objects between you and the most fundamental of human functions.

...The most dispiriting aspect of this needless global techgasm is not the sinister push from above, but the sense of eager compliance from below. It is, I suppose, that old Jam lyric writ large: the public get what the public wants. And if you're dumb enough to want a Halo, a Neurolink or a digital assistant that can understand ancient Cornish idioms, then you probably deserve it.

(Kevin Maher, The Times, 2020)

The Squeezed Middle

…The idea of a squeezed middle certainly resonates in the suburban households that have been feeling the pinch during the long and incomplete recovery from the crash of 2008.

…Economies have always had their very rich and their very poor, but traditionally they also had a sizeable and growing middle class, which glued societies together and acted as political ballast. But over the past decade or so real incomes for those in the middle have been stagnant at best. When there has been growth, the higher incomes have gone disproportionately to those at the top.

Expectation, John William Godward (1861-1922) Photo Credit: Manchester Art Gallery [CC BY-NC-ND]

…In the UK, owner-occupation rates are at their lowest for three decades and a third of those aged 18-34 are living with their parents. A quarter of the people in poverty live in households where at least one person is working. Employment is at record levels but the number of people in low-paid and insecure work has risen.

As usual, bad economics has resulted in bad politics, leading to widespread cynicism, disengagement and anger. All the parties have picked up on this, which is why they talk about helping those who are “just about managing” and crafting policy “for the many not the few”. The challenge is twofold: first to sift through an array of ideas – of which a basic income, a land value tax, higher investment in skills and training, a break up of monopolies and a Green New Deal are examples – into a package of measures to rebuild economic solidarity. Second, to convince the squeezed middle that it is real.

(Larry Elliott, The Guardian, 2019)

Record employment gained partly with zero hours contracts, increases in poverty and wage stagnation for the majority over the last decade, large pay increases for those at the top, health and education sectors under huge financial pressures. We are all in this together? Really?