"Cruises were priced similarly to assisted living centers and more efficacious"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15507078

by GuiA • 13 years ago

76 46 13 years ago

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

BasilAwad• 13 years ago

This is a great idea. Instead of settling in a retirement home, which always seemed so depressing to me, abandoned seniors (I know not ALL cases are the same) can at least enjoy travel and a constant change of atmosphere if they so desire.

The sad thing though is that this paper is from 2004. I wonder what action, if any, has been taken since.

As a side note, I also know that some people have family members that need medical care. I just hope I'm never put in a difficult situation where I would consider putting my parents in a retirement home. But if it was a cruise! Not so bad! That's like a permanent vacation!

kashnikov• 13 years ago

What if serious medical care is required, i.e. surgery?

bdcravens• 13 years ago

Probably no different than if a younger traveler was injured and needing medical attention: they'd triage it onboard, and provide emergency care at the next port-of-call if needed. Worst case scenario, helicopter ride to a major hospital.

brotchie• 13 years ago

Any idea what level of medical care they can provision on-ship? I'd presume they have morgue facilities, given the negatively skewed age distribution, but no operating theatre?

Apreche• 13 years ago

I think that's less of a concern than the constant medical care usually required of an elderly person. On top of the cost of a cruise are you going to pay to have a nurse on board with them at all times? How about if they need regular medical supplies. How would someone get say, insulin, delivered? What if they need dialysis? If there is senility involved, a boat is a bad place to be.

A senior who can get by living on a cruise ship is probably also healthy enough to get by living on their own. I think it really only works in cases where the person is healthy and mentally all there, but needs someone to cook, do laundry for them, etc.

ch00• 13 years ago

Cruises are priced such because cruise ship workers are paid incredibly low wages:

"The Cruise Lines International Association says its "crew members are provided wages that are competitive with international pay scales." But a cleaner aboard a Royal Caribbean ship, for example, will work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for as little as $156.25 a week with no tips. U.S. labor laws are not applicable to provide protection to crew members at sea, nor is there any real oversight of the cruise lines' operations."

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/13/opinion/walker-cruise-ships

coldcode2• 13 years ago

Unlike people who read articles I like to talk with the working folks when I am on a cruise. Yes they work long hours for often 7-9 month contracts. But the pay they get is better than anything they could ever get in their home country. A lot of them get to spend several months at home for every contract but are always eager to go out again. It's isn't an easy life but looking at it from a rich country it seems like slavery. But most of them find the work acceptable for the pay compared to their home. Some cruise lines are much nicer to their employees than others and most of them know who.

I bet that nice piece of fruit you are eating was picked by someone from a poor country who is likely working illegally because the money at that farm is pretty good where they came from. Yes it might seem exploitative to us but their own country is much worse. Something we might not be willing to do for any money other people are happy to do it for any wage.

johnvschmitt• 13 years ago

You are both true & making good points. It sounds like another "offshoring" idea then.

The bigger problem from my POV is that the old folks they serve are being treated as "steady state", when in fact their conditions are often deteriorating. And, when Grandma dies, will her family have to wait 1-2 weeks for her ship to return to port for a proper family gathering & funeral? Stinky...

netcan• 13 years ago

Another big element is the fact that it comes with room, board, few opportunities to spend your wages & fewer demands on your disposable income. $150-$200 p/w is an opportunity to save a few thousand a year, close to impossible in most alternative cases.

e12e3• 13 years ago

So, your argument is that since the mechanism of globalization works on such a, well, global scale, cruise owners taking advantage by purchasing labour at slave prices in order to sell cruises cheaply to those near the top of the global pyramid (if not on the summit) means it's not exploitation any more?

> Something we might not be willing to do for any money other people are happy to do it for any wage.

Define "happy". Happy to do it rather than starve, or happy to do it rather than live in the abundance a fair share of the global output would entitle them to (for almost any definition of "fair share" - other than "handed down by previous and current war profiteers").

> ... it seems like slavery ... Some cruise lines are much nicer to their employees than others

Right. And I'm sure if it was slavery, some slave masters would be nicer to their slaves than others.

(I think I'm coming off more harshly against coldcode than I really intend to here.

I am trying to make the point that precisely because we live in a world that is unfair, defending unfairness when it is obvious will not help improve things. That is, assuming we would like to see things become more fair.

I do agree that too many people will react to obvious unfairness, and then ignore all the not so obvious wrongs we tend to contribute to everyday -- and which is almost impossible to simply "opt out" of (eg: trying to do good by recycling electronics, only to find that circuit boards are melted over open flames by children in China, destroying lives and ground water tables)).

rosser• 13 years ago

Cruise ship retirement communities were a plot element in Albert Brooks' novel, 2030, which is definitely worth the quick read.

gregpilling• 13 years ago

Also the movie Wall-E

coldcode2• 13 years ago

I met an elderly woman that lived on a cruise ship. She need a walked but was otherwise in good health. She knew everyone on the ship, and made new friends with every cruise. To her it was an awesome life, rather than being stuck in some home. The discounts you get for multiple cruises made it quite affordable for her. Eventually she would need more healthcare but she was going to stay as long as she could.

I wouldn't mind it either if the internet was better...

hkmurakami• 13 years ago

My parents went on a few nice cruises after all their children went off to college, and they had the same experience of meeting such people who were using cruises as retirement homes. When my parents shared this story with me, I had a similar reaction as you did.

I imagine such a life would be much more interesting than life stuck in a single place with no new faces.

ctdonath• 13 years ago

Having just gotten off my first cruise, I'm amazed at how plausible this suggestion is, at least for a narrow category of folks of limited mobility but otherwise stable health.

Heck, I could see a modest startup taking on handling the logistics of such an arrangement.

Eliezer• 13 years ago

Is this because assisted living centers have more regulatory barriers or burdens than cruise ships? Intuitively it does not seem like the costs should be the same.

andybak• 13 years ago

Am I the only person who initially assumed this was a Swiftian proposal intended to highlight the gross over-charging for assisted living?

VLM• 13 years ago

The purpose of assisted living is to adsorb the remaining financial resources out of the residents. Its a battle of giant corporations to prevent any inheritance from reaching the heirs. In the great feast at your financial corpse, will your wealth go to the banks, as mortgage interest, or the hospital, or the assisted living... they're all going to be pretty pissed off if the cruise ships start competing on their turf. So expect some "journalism" aka marketing news releases about horrible cruise ships.

Given that multi-industry business model, how long do you think it would take until cruise ships join that business model? If the residents are not kicked out off the ship until they're utterly destitute, that cruise ship operator is leaving money on the table.

Its like arguing about how a hospital room costs more than a motel 6 room. Well, duh, you're not going to squeeze blood from a rock at a motel.

What sucks about this for everyone, aside from the injustice of it all, jackals at a corpse, etc, is that the new business model is completely incompatible with the old business model. When my wife and I got married, long ago, we went on a fun honeymoon cruise. This option will be removed with the new business model. Technically perhaps possible as newlyweds, but the terms will be something weird like 10% of your remaining net worth per week or whatever instead of just a fixed price "competitive with all inclusive resorts"

Shivetya• 13 years ago

Before you demagogue the assisted care industry you might want to look at the government as well, Medicade will confiscate estates to pay for care. This was a wonderful feature of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. States are required to recover costs.

My grandmother's stay at a retirement/assisted living home added years to her life. She also got to meet new people and most important, had an active life. Far better than people bound up in their home alone till they pass.

jacquesm• 13 years ago

Noro virus outbreaks on cruise ships would put a relatively quick end to that if it were to become popular. Of course you have those in nursing homes as well but a cruise ship is a particularly nice setting. Lots of people in close proximity, and if there is an outbreak you can't really avoid contact with infected others unless you lock yourself in your cabin.

"Cruises were priced similarly to assisted living centers and more efficacious"

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