Last December, my grandfather passed away, leaving my grandmother alone for the first time in 60 years. She doesn’t want to get out of bed without laughter coming from her living room, cook food without others sitting around the table, or clean her apartment when there’s only her mess to tidy.
Social isolation can be dangerous; severe loneliness is associated with increased rates of both dementia and general mortality. What’s more, her situation is far from unique. In the US, 30% of the elderly experience serious social isolation.
This phenomenon is particularly difficult to overcome in suburban areas. My grandmother’s neighborhood is full of families, but there are no community events.
Every road is at least four lanes wide, and there are scarcely any trees to protect pedestrians from scorching 90° weather. While there is some public transit, buses only come every 30 minutes. Sprawling cities prioritize cars and gas; third spaces come with high price tags for food, drinks, or activities; and the richest corporations buy up the most-accessible locations around town.
One of the few places designed to offer community to the elderly are senior care homes. However, in my grandmother’s area, the average cost for a shared room is around $164,000 per year, and for a private room it’s $237,000. Comparatively, the Federal Reserve reported in 2022 that for seniors older than 75, the median retirement savings was just $130,000—not enough for a year, even without other expenses.
Instead, my grandmother relies on a part-time, at-home caretaker to help her around the house. Caretaking is expensive, costing clients on average $30 an hour, which adds up to around $3,500 a month for 40 hours per week.
But this is not without its issues. Many personal caretakers are unable to shoulder the burden that comes with taking care of the elderly. When my grandmother received her first at-home caretaker, the agency hastily assigned an underqualified candidate who was unable to cook for her, clean her living space, or drive her around. The agency still charged my grandmother full price, robbing her for two weeks before her needs were met.
The caretaker was also likely underpaid. As of 2024, the median pay for a home caretaker was a mere $34,900 a year or $16.78 an hour, per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. As a result, many personal caretakers are forced to take on additional jobs to supplement their wages, making it more difficult for them to attend to the intense physical and emotional demands of elderly care.
The ruling class insists that greed is an intrinsic and insurmountable part of human nature. In my grandmother’s life, it is the people in her community who offer her food, company, and services out of their own precious time and resources. Her neighbors sacrifice their days off when they could be resting to take her on long trips to the doctor’s office or cook her homemade meals. It is the capitalist state, privatized healthcare, and the housing market that would rather see my grandmother waste away alone for an extra penny in their pockets.
As my care and concern for my grandmother grow, my hatred for capitalism burns brighter. As a proud communist, I refuse to tolerate a system that treats the ones I love so poorly. At all ages, workers deserve to live in dignity and happiness.