[Phantom Lord]

"I'm Old. Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie!" --Grampa Simpson

[Dead Corpse]

Yeah, but they vote so they will get their handouts as the politicians on both sides pander to them.

[sandbar]

Wow, so my dad can actually pay me for taking care of him!?! What a thought!

Now if I could only get them to pay me for carting around my kids.

[wtc911]

So, are they the gimme generation or the greatest generation?

[Kenton]

Having personally been the "Gimme Generation" for the first 18 years or so of my life, I'm a little reluctant to cast that kind of aspersion at the generation that raised me.

[valkyrieanne]

I'm torn here. On one hand, yes, I feel sorry for the childless old people with no one to help them.

On the other hand ... I can't count how many times I see or read of wealthy old people on the golf course - cruising around the world for the third and fourth time - spending their kids' inheritances in numerous ways. *They* certainly aren't helping their same-age cohorts.

Nor are many particularly helping their children and grandchildren. When Grandma's hanging out at the pool in FL six months a year, blowing it all on plastic surgery instead of helping raise her grandchildren, is it any surprise that *some* 30- and 40-somethings aren't terribly sympathetic?

Social responsibility slices both ways.

[k2blader]

Grampa Simpson was always one of my favorites. :-D

It's heartening to see most folks on this thread advocating family, church, and charity help over taxpayer-funded welfare.

[Chewbacca]

Instead of these old farts causing the government to steal more money from tax payers to fix their housing problems, why don't they ever take their needs to their local church and ask for help?

[RightWhale]

The day I can't get out of the bathtub, just leave me there to prune up.

[happygrl]

You wouldn't believe how many people get paid by the government for babysitting their own grandchildren after school, much less the number who get AFDC for assuming reponsibility for family members.

[k2blader]

Greedy geezer bump,

[Snoopers-868th]

"They can hire their daughter, they can hire their neighbor, they can take a taxi, they can use their MARTA card, and they can do whatever they want, and we'll be watching how they get around," said Lawler, of the Aging Atlanta project. This is because the daughter (family) will only do it for money and why should anyone outside of family do it for nothing? The kids take possession of everything they can before they dump them in nursing homes at the general public's expense. Give me a break.

[Spirochete]

Lee's story is the kind the Atlanta Regional Commission wants to hear.

That pretty much says it all.

[Spirochete]

"The main goal is to reach people who are not connected to the [welfare] system and find isolated seniors and get them engaged in your wallet in any way we can," said Kathryn Lawler, project director of ARC's Aging Atlanta.