7 votes

Japan’s elderly online shoppers are running into trouble

2 comments

  1. [2]
    skybrian
    Link
    At some point, many elderly people need to give up driving. There may be similar issues with buying stuff, where purchases have to be reviewed by someone? Few people think about this much in...

    At some point, many elderly people need to give up driving. There may be similar issues with buying stuff, where purchases have to be reviewed by someone?

    Few people think about this much in advance, though.

    If it were possible to trust computers with such things, I could imagine a service that sanity-checks your purchases: “didn’t you buy this already?” It could even be useful to people who don’t have dementia. But in a paranoid age, it’s hard to think of an organization that could be trusted with the job.

    5 votes
    1. MimicSquid
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      I have an elderly bookkeeping client where being a general sanity check is what I do for her. Most if the time I'm not doing anything of great importance, but as she is slowly losing her grip on...

      I have an elderly bookkeeping client where being a general sanity check is what I do for her. Most if the time I'm not doing anything of great importance, but as she is slowly losing her grip on her sense of her finances I help keep her on track. Unfortunately, this isn't really a service that can be offered at a reasonable price to most of the population, which is why it's mostly children who get saddled with this responsibility for their parents' finances.

      4 votes