There are empty nesters in rural areas and empty nesters in cities, not because the elderly themselves are willing to live alone, but because they have to live alone. So, how are empty nesters formed?
In ancient times, filial piety was advocated and people were required to be filial to their parents. Especially when the parents are old, the son should be filial piety before bed. Confucius said: "If your parents are here, you will not travel far, but you must have a way to travel." "Emphasize that children should honor and support their parents, and that if their parents are alive, they should not travel far away. If you go out, you must tell your parents where you are going. And when your parents are healthy, you have to go out and let them know that the place they are going to is safe. If the parents are not in good health and need to be taken care of, the children cannot go far away, and must stay by their parents' side and be filial at the bedside. As a result, there are fewer empty nesters and more people who honor their parents. Of course, there are also unfilial people, but the society advocates filial piety, and advocates that children should guard the elderly and be filial at the bedside. If the parents are sick and the children do not take care of them, and when the parents die, the funeral will be done in a big way, and they will be laughed at and even said to be unfilial. And filial piety is a negative evaluation of a person, and it is not a good word. Many people will isolate unfilial people or even not talk to them, making them feel ashamed.
Most of the ancient societies were dominated by agricultural civilization, advocating family reunion and not going out to earn a living. I can't get along at home, so I will go out to make a living. As for scholars rushing to take the exam, that is the professional pursuit of the scholars themselves, and it is also the ideal of scholars. If the scholar passes the exam, he can become an official and take his parents to the city to enjoy happiness, and there will be no empty nesters. However, if the scholar fails the exam and has no face to go home, there will be no one to take care of his parents. In this way, they have read the books of the sages in vain and become unfilial people. At that time, there were not many people in business. After all, society does not advocate doing business, but advocating honest farming. Only when a large number of peasants cultivate the land can tax revenues be guaranteed and a steady stream of grain delivered to the government for consumption by the ruling class. If a businessman wants to go out, he can't always stay with his parents, so he is often criticized for being unfilial. The imperial court advocated filial piety, and when the emperor died, he had to go to the funeral in accordance with the royal etiquette norms, and all civil and military officials had to wear filial piety. If the minister's parents die, the minister will have to worry for three years, which is actually to go home and keep filial piety for three years. In the past, there was no filial piety, and when the parents died, they had to keep filial piety for three years, which was a manifestation of filial piety. The earliest filial piety was to wear linen and wear filial piety, build a small shack in front of the grave of his parents, and keep it for three years before it was finished. Later, it developed into a three-year filial piety in his hometown, but he would not build a shack in the cemetery to keep filial piety. Later, it developed into a situation after the funeral, and within three months, you can't participate in the happy event, you can't smile on your face, and you can't **. In "Water Margin", when Pan Qiaoyun asked the monk Pei Ruhai to do something, he hooked up with Pei Ruhai, which was regarded as a kind of adulteress's behavior, and was finally disemboweled by Yang Xiong and died.
Nowadays, people don't seem to pay much attention to filial piety. After all, capital has penetrated into all walks of life, and if you want to hire a large number of laborers, you can't scruple too much filial piety. Many peasants went to the cities to work and became cheap laborers. If they guard one acre and three points of land and live with their parents, they will never be able to earn a lot of money and never get rich. Even if a farmer tries to raise pigs, try to grow fruit trees, grow grapes, etc., not they can make a lot of money every year. They prefer to go to the city to work, or they are forced by life to go to the city to work. After entering the city, the elderly and children were left in the countryside. The elderly have become empty nesters, and the children have become left-behind children. If the elderly are sick and cannot be cared for, they may receive money from their children, and they will not be able to enjoy the care of their children. And if children do not live with their parents for a long time, they will have a lot of problems, and even develop into problem teenagers.
From the perspective of economic development, the emergence of empty nesters is an inevitable phenomenon. Socio-economic development requires a large amount of cheap labor, and the rural areas have the majority of cheap labor. As a result, under the inspiration of capital, the rural labor force has moved to the city, providing a fundamental impetus for urban development. If the elderly have lost their labor force, or are no longer suitable for the needs of the labor market, they will be eliminated by the market, and they can only take care of a few acres of land and children in the countryside, and there is no need to go to the city. It's just that when the empty nester gets sick, the children don't stay by their side, and they can't wait for the news of their children even when they are critically ill, isn't it a kind of sadness?Could it be that they have a problem with themselves that they are treated like this?
Of course not, but the development of social productive forces has made most of the young people move to the city, and the labor market has automatically eliminated the elderly, so that the elderly can only live alone, especially the elderly in the countryside, after becoming empty nesters, they are relatively lonely. The top priority is not to criticize the social mode of production, nor to criticize the lack of filial piety, but to solve the problem of empty nesters, provide them with a certain pension environment, and send special service personnel to take care of them. If left unchecked, there will be many human tragedies. An empty nester got sick and didn't want to drag down his children, so he drank pesticides and died. There are also those who have hanged themselves, all of whom are sick and spend a lot of money, but they do not earn money, and they have to spend the hard-earned money of their children, so they feel that they are a burden and understand life. And this kind of self-assertion is actually regarded as a virtue and spread everywhere ......
It stands to reason that such a tragedy should not happen in such a society. However, since there is such a tragedy, the relevant departments should reflect and give care to the empty nesters, instead of just seeing the empty nesters and being indifferent, and they can't just temporarily send some rice, flour and oil and other things, even if they take care of them. Mechanisms should be established to help empty nesters, and sustainable development strategies should be formed, so that more young people can participate, even if it is volunteering, it will be rewarded in the future. When the young people get older, they will receive the same amount of volunteer care. If you can't see the phenomenon of empty nesters, you will lose your filial piety, and if you only care about the appreciation and development of capital, you will lose your ethics and morality, and even become brazen, disloyal and unfilial, and be a son of man in vain.