Taking Better Care

I HAVE A good friend who lives in an assisted living facility. He's ninety five, and in excellent health, and needs very little assistance. Thus he lives in a facility which offers whatever is needed, which for him isn't much. Its a very nice "high end" facility, with nice apartments, etc. His wife lives in another assisted living facility in another town, a facility which provides more direct, extensive care to patients wih compromised health. The two places are a good ten miles apart. He gets a ride and goes to visit her twice a week, which, ostensibly, works well for them. However, just recently his visits have decreased in frequency to one per week, due to what he says is his inability to get a ride, and that's a definite concern. Neither of them drive. He's too healthy to live where she does, and she's not in good enough health to live where he does, according to the system, long story short. To me, this situation seems crazy, tragic, avoidable. To me, this situation is one of many probable examples indicating that the system we have for providing care to elderly citizens in America is inadequate. These two beautiful people, with successful lives as community leaders and controibutors to their credit, should have had, and should have, a whole lot less difficult time finding a way to live together, should be able to easily find a way to live together, within the system, it seems to me. One might hope that it seems that way to everyone. We in America, by extension, should develop much better ways of taking care of everyone, it seems to me. Conservatives have for years touted the American health care system as the best in the world, capitalistic and all, and resisted and stopped all attempts to reform and improve it. Conservatives also have often said that we Americans do not want to do things the way they do, for instance, in Europe, what with Europe's more comprehsensive, sweeping socialism, for instance. The problem with American conservatives, of course, is their seeming lack of intellectual abilities. Case in point, seventy percent of American conservatives, at least, fail to comprehend the obvious reality that there is no way in heaven or hell that the election was stolen from Trump; to steal it would be too massive an undertaking to go undetected. But, as they say, I digress... They (conservatives) also fail to grasp that strong healthy capitalism will flourish much better if everyone in the country has basic health care, and a decent, living income. You put some spendable, disposable money in the hands of millions of previously poor peope, and watch out! Demand goes through the roof, demand being the only thing that stimulates supply, aka production, sales, distribution, ergo widespread wealth, which, if memory serves, is the prsumed end of free market capitalism, correct? Capitalism and socialism go hand in hand, work beautifully together. Hint: maybe if we turned the "assisted living industry" into a bit less of an "industry", into a bit less of a free market, profit seeking business, and more into a public duty, responsibility, and concern, we would all pitch in, build a better system, and all be happier.