“And more and more of the country will be paid to take care of old people.”
I’ve shelled out over $42,000 in the past 5 years for 3 hours a week to ‘help’ my elderly Dad.
It’s a total racket. I’ve finally gotten him into Care Wisconsin which is run by Medicare/Medicaid and now *I* am being paid to help care for him, along with his best care worker that I stole away from another company. ;)
I can see this being a VERY cut-throat and successful industry as the rest of us get older and grayer.
One of the smartest business models I’ve seen popping up around here is that someone builds a rather large home, complete with a communal kitchen and lots of bedrooms with their own bathrooms, and all on one floor. Then, you hire a RN or two to be on staff and you and your family live there, too, overseeing things, in somewhat separate quarters. (A friend recovering from a heart transplant lived in a situation like this before he could go home again; he loved it.)
I’m sure it takes some capital to get it up and running, but it would be a real money maker after that; people around here are BEGGING for safe places to stow their elderly and infirm. ;)
I worked for a man for years that had a huge house like you described. The house had several bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, and a maid’s quarters. The master suite even had a small kitchen. That house was built in the 1950s and his son called it the mausoleum; made fun of his father for building such a house. It has been very well kept and regularly updated and was in fantastic shape. The family did not want it, they thought it was just too much and old fashioned. They sold it and it is now being used as private nursing home. It brought a fortune, far beyond what anyone in the family expected to get for the “white elephant” as they called it.