
In France, Elder Care Comes with the Mail - hhs
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/in-france-elder-care-comes-with-the-mail
======
mc32
Due to an aging population, Japan has the “problem” of the police having
little to do.

I think they could reroute them when time allows to do rounds on the elderly;
checking up on them and doing small errands for them (coördinated via
something elder accessible). I’m thinking things like prescriptions (if
arranged for in some way), small groceries and such.

~~~
rolleiflex
That sounds like a start-up idea. A network of vetted employees doing runs
around the city taking care of elderly people. I'd expect their employees
would be way happier than the average startup employee, it's meaningful work.

~~~
toast0
Not really startupy, it's a franchised business [1]. There's not a whole lot
to innovate here, unless you're going to match up unsuspecting elders with
unlicensed, unscheduled local care givers through an app.

[1] [https://www.livingassistance.com/](https://www.livingassistance.com/)

------
vianneychevalie
My company worked on designing this product. The decline of physical mail,
combined with the high job security, especially in hybrid public/private
companies like La Poste, lead to having to find new revenue streams compatible
with the existing skillset of the employees. It started off quite slowly! But
momentum is building up.

Happy to direct all questions to the team that imagined it!

~~~
littlestymaar
> My company worked on designing this product.

When you say "this product" does that also include the electronic time-
tracking on postmen which prevent them to talk with people for free?

Because most of this "product" formerly came for free when postmen had enough
time and no constant spying on their movements. Them someone realized that
elderly people complained about the lack of interaction with postmen and
decided to make them pay for it. Is that what you call “designing a product”?

~~~
brmgb
That has been my experience with this as well. It must be nice having an ad
like this in the New Yorker but what is presented is pretty far for the truth.

The postal service used to be a corner of local life in the countryside.
Postmen had the same "tournée", the list of address to which they deliver
mail, for a long time, sometimes decades and mail was traditionally delivered
by bike. As a result, they knew their customers. The figure of the local
postman as a social presence is deeply anchored in French culture notably in
popular songs.

This innovation is therefor less an innovation that a way of making people pay
for something that used to be free. The reality of the new offer is that now
the time postmen spend at each place along their distribution path is tighly
monitored so that they don't stay too long with people who don't pay. It's not
so much about introducing new care than about preventing free interactions.

Obviously it might not be obvious to the mostly urban consultants who advised
La Poste on this. It is the 21st century after all, you have to _capitalize_
on the "silver economy".

------
oska
> A survey commissioned by La Poste found that French citizens rank mail
> carriers among their “favorite figures encountered in daily life,” second
> only to bakers.

This made me laugh a little.

~~~
kwhitefoot
I must be a bit slow today, what was funny?

~~~
oska
Just how much bakers are appreciated in France.

(Which I think is great.)

~~~
seszett
Postmen and bakers are basically the two persons everyone sees everyday, so it
makes sense.

~~~
baud147258
For the bakers, it depends on how much bread you'd eat every day, I need to go
to the baker once every two or three days. And if you live in a flat, you
never see the postmen, mail just get dropped in your mailbox.

------
peignoir
Based on the French site it’s actually as low as 10 euros
[https://www.laposte.fr/particulier/veiller-sur-mes-
parents](https://www.laposte.fr/particulier/veiller-sur-mes-parents)

