[donw]

Retirement homes are basically in the business of funneling the life savings of elderly residents into their own coffers.

For a fully mobile senior requiring no additional care, you're looking at a minimum of USD $3500/month at an assisted living facility. Add in any nursing needs, and that number will quickly go north of $5k/month. Once you start heading towards your late 80s, that number again quickly doubles.

Note that this does not include medical care, diapers, clothing, a phone, etc.

And this is the bottom of the market. A higher-end home will run double if not more.

In Japan, there are homes for every income tier, from "nothing more than a government pension" on up. Sure, the lower-end homes aren't great, but they beat homelessness by a wide margin. And these are private businesses, not government-run facilities.