Although the problem described in the forwarded article is very real and huge, it is becoming far greater.

To the number of elderly men who lost all contact with their children already decades ago must be added the number of the elderly who were induced to never have children and never forming attachments with a spouse.  The number of adults so inclined now approaches 30 percent of all adults.

That means that not only will the number of elderly lonely men rise as the years go by, but so will the number of elderly lonely women, except that for increasing numbers of elderly women the state of loneliness in their old age will, due to their far greater life expectancies, last many more years.

Daily Mail (Britain)
10 June 2008

How half a million lonely old men pay price of the divorce boom

By Steve Doughty, Social Affairs Correspondent

Half a million elderly men lead lonely lives with no friends and no contact with their families, a report warned yesterday….([1] Full Story)