Child care and elderly care one of the harder problems to solve. I hope some smart people decide to tackle it. Lots of potential for abuse and neglect. At one point I used to plan about combining an old age home and orphanage together. It could help with some emotional needs.
These problems do appear inextricably linked. Individualism in american culture is, IMO, the root. In many other cultures, family is huge -- folks are connected to their parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins... grandparents help out with the kids until they can't, and the skills of parenting are naturally passed from generation to generation. Funny to see a comment on another that "no one" is prepared to raise a kid... that's because individualism is bad at retaining wisdom.
The problem with your mixed old folks' home / orphanage is that individualistic old people don't wanna live there until they're too old to help out.
