Beyond their home (and vehicle, if they can still drive), the old people have little.
<blockquote>Table J. Median Net Worth and Median Net Worth Excluding Home Equity of Household by Type of Household and Age of Householder: 1998 and 2000
Median net worth in 1998
(in 2000 dollars)
Total Excluding equity
in own home
Married-couple households 65 years and over 164,747 55,176
Male householders 65 years and over 73,848 19,304
Female householders 65 years and over 75,127 10,826
Median net worth in 2000
Total Excluding equity
in own home
Married-couple households 65 years and over 173,950 57,586
Male householders 65 years and over 84,000 15,375
Female householders 65 years and over 76,000 10,475
("Net Worth and Asset Ownership of Households: 1998 and 2000," May 2003, <http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p70-88.pdf>, p. 16)</ blockquote>
And what little they have, they will have to use for health care and then for end-of-life care. Medicaid planning is more pressing than estate tax planning for the upper-middle income households,
Most Americans die with nothing except their house (if they can keep that) and their pain, which goes undertreated because of the backward attitude toward drugs and addiction (cf. <http://mailman.lbo- talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20060206/031174.html>).
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>