I stopped reading when you said children should help their parents in old age.
IMO you are talking fantasy land here. That concept went out somewhere in the 60’s - 70’s era. Today it’s many parents helping their kids well into their 30’s & 40’s, where they are so worthless and dependent on freebies they will not be able to take care of themselves, let alone their parents too.
Granted, this is not everyone. For the balance that can afford to take care of their parents we need to adjust our culture to re-accept that concept. Good luck there.
“IMO you are talking fantasy land here.”
Parents would get a partial refund of the FICA & SE tax paid by their children.
FICA tax is withheld by the childrens’ employers as per federal law on their wage and salary income.
It’s not based on charity from the kids, it’s a tax refund.
So, you are ignoring hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution because the past 40 years people have had the luxury of pawning their responsibilities off on government. Let me clue you in....
Humans will be on this earth for a long, long time. It won't always be as rosy as the American century and the few decades that come after it.
Sooner than you may think, we will be back to the millennial old tradition of children taking care of their parents in old age.
We can either mold society to better reflect our instincts and natural inclinations now or we can continue to live in a fantasy land and pretend that nameless, faceless government bureaucrats know how to care for our elderly better than their children do until we are smacked in the face with the realization that they can't.