[michael1999]

You see the same sort of thing at the other end. In something like Montessori, older children will make lunch for the younger children. Or in Japan, children will clean their classrooms at the end of each day. When I was in elementary in Calgary, the crossing guards were 3-student teams selected from volunteer students in grade 6. Instead, we dedicate paid adult labour to all of that.

I don't understand all the causes. Some is labour rights history (freeing children from the mills was a social victory), some is weird labour bargaining (a child doing a union job is a scab), and some is class anxiety from parents (only servants should wash a floor). Not to mention that given a choice, the young and old alike will chose free servants over doing their own chores.

For seniors, another cause is the novelty of mass retirement. North America was very young until recently, and we could afford to extend retirement benefits to people who'd never paid a dime in because there were so few of them.

My instincts are egalitarian, so I believe it doing for myself. Silver plate is for suckers, unless you like to cosplay as the help for an afternoon. But the world is full of people who just _must_ have servants.