Car Wash

 

It's morbid but true that the older people get, the more they require medical care. People are like cars with older models requiring part replacement, ie hips, knees and back vertebrae. Looking at life as a balance sheet, society is investing a good deal of capital in mechanisms that have an increasingly short half life. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that more people over 70 have joint and heart procedures than the rest of the population combined. From an actuarial point to view, aging gerontocrats are a bad bet. Most repairs are quality of life issues in which populations in a certain demographic are made to feel comfortable for rest of the ride aka life. However, the effectiveness of such procedures on a cost basis is questionable.  It's like throwing good money after bad. In societies where the elderly are venerated there's no question about making the necessary repairs. But many materialistically inclined consumers may look skeptically on the notion of replacing parts when enticing trade-ins are ubiquitously available.

Listen to Joan Baum's review of The Kafka Studies Department by Francis Levy on NPR

and listen to "Car Wash"by Rose Royce