A 401k won't check up on you when you're old and alone, a few good children will. Have kids, and raise them well.
If your argument is "have children so someone will check on you when you're old", I'd argue that bringing sentient beings into the world for just that purpose is a bit overkill. Other options include: being part of a strong community, living in some sort of communal place for elderly folk, or even just some sort of basic health monitoring that can alert emergency services if something looks off.
Adopting is also an option if you're really sold on the "sentient beings" thing.
I think one unspoken assumption is that if someone is checking in with you regularly, they might actually find you before you die, and either call an ambulance to help you, or notice that something might be a problem before it becomes severe.
Mostly just noting that creating humans solely for the purpose of caring for you in old age is a fairly nuclear option.
The US and other individualistic Western countries are probably the exception.
It's probably because the areas of greatest economic opportunity keep shifting, so children don't end up in the same city as their parents to care for them.
How many died after breaking their leg and starving alone on their floor?
Having kids isn't even a guarantee that they'll be around to care for you in your old age. My grandparents had four and still needed to be moved to a home with a full time carer at the end because none of their kids were able to move back home to take care of them.
Plus it's not just about really literal full-on elderly care, but also simply keeping society running even when you're old enough that you can no longer actively contribute your share as much.
I know it's horribly cynical, but if you don't have kids then go on Medicare then rack up a huge bill, you've basically burdened a smaller next generation with a higher tax bill and basically are setting up a Japan 2.0
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It's something I think about a lot. I have siblings and niblings, but I live in a 3rd world country and my goal in life is to escape to some first world country.
If I escape, I will die alone abroad; but while I live, I'll be able to make my life and the life of my loved ones better.
If I stay, I might be able to count on my nephews/nieces to check on me in old age...but depending on how life goes and what the economic conditions are, it's much more likely that...
Not only do I live a terrible life, but when I am old and my siblings dead, my niblings will ignore me, unable to take care of another burden, nor would I want to be such a burden on them.
Which lends me back to option 1: go abroad... then maybe retire back here? But then I would have no connection, and nor would they have one with me.
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I'v seen this happen here a lot. A lot of people I know lived their lives in the Gulf... used to a certain standard of living and having barely any connection to the relatives back home.
They educated their kids and sent then to uni in 1st world countries, while they retired to big palatial homes here.
But now they are alone, their kids have no reason to come back after uni to the big 3rd world homes their fathers built... and the relatives here have no connection to the uncle/aunt from the gulf they saw once every three years.
The kids are alone abroad, the parents are alone here. No one wins.
There is no solution for growing old and dying.
Personally, I was around seven years old when I realized that there was no god and it meant that death would be the end of my consciousness. It probably didn't help that I had an operation about that time using general anesthesia which effectively turned my brain off for a few hours and showed me what it might mean to be dead for a short time - a period in which I was not present and formed no memories, and what it would mean to be dead for an infinite time. I was not a particularly easy-going child after that.
I really appreciate you sharing your story, helps me think about my own thoughts and feelings. :) <3
Not having many close relationships when you die is probably a better net benefit. People are crushed when their parents pass.
People don't always go from fine to dead in an instant. There can be a period of days when you are still alive, but incapable of calling for help. If you were found in that period you wouldn't necessarily have to end up dead.