This whole situation is a mess on so many levels. The fact that this guy died the way he did is hard to wrap my head around. And it is, in the truest sense, a shame.
The broader question of what to do with people who are behind on their bills is a tough one. We say that the power company cannot place limiters on meters because people need heat. But what about folks with propane or fuel oil, should the fuel providers be required to maintain a full tank even when the bill isn't paid? At what point do we determine that externally-supplied heat sources are a "right" instead of a luxury? What about those places where there is no other option but to use externally-supplied heat sources? Tough questions.
Obviously this fellow had the means to pay his heating bill, yet for whatever reason he chose not to. I see this sort of stuff fairly regularly in my work (poverty law/legal aid, services delivered on an income-eligible basis) where people who have the means to do X choose not to do X, and then a huge problem comes up as a result. We can argue up and down whether their choice was right or wrong, but at the end of the day it is their choice unless and until a court determines them to be incompetent and appoints a guardian or conservator. Was this fellow in need of a guardian? It sure looks like it, given how things played out here. But if nobody petitions the court to have one appointed...
Which brings us to the other issue: what to do with isolated elderly folks...that is a very tough question, because there is no one-size-fits-all answer, because the elderly are not per se incompetent. I spent my youth and young adult years doing odd jobs for old folks, taking them to their doctors, to the store, and stuff like that. It was tremendously satisfying and it could be fit in around my school schedule. All of my work was by referral, and it was this way because I quickly learned that there are TONS of old folks who are isolated. They may live in your neighborhood, and you may even chat with them in their yard once in a while, but at the end of the day they are alone. Even prior to the onset of mental deterioration, loneliness and apathy can set in and lead to terrible outcomes. Even in affluent communities, the social isolation of an 80-something who lives in a $1m house, alone all week except for a trip to Church on Sunday, can lead to poor outcomes.
I don't know what the solution to this stuff is, but I think that this scenario just heightens the need to be a good neighbor and to try that much harder to look out for one another. And sometimes, as good people, we have to step in and do what needs to be done even when the person we are trying to help doesn't want help. A few years back I lost my grandfather under a terrible set of circumstances, largely because I deferred to his judgment even when I knew that what he was doing was not a good choice. I know that it is tough to balance respect for the wishes of others with a need to look out for someone, but if I had it to do over again I would certainly have done things differently. While there are surely gray areas, there are also objective thresholds of "good" and "bad" choices, and when the bad choices threshold is crossed I think we have a duty as good people to step up and do something.
look at all the people that died when the east coast power outages a couple years back. i dont know what would be worse frezzin to death or heatsroke we should really keep an eye on our neighbors just in case. thats one thing i like about were we live now compared to vegas we all no one another.
