The fact is that, notwithstanding the very high costs of accommodation in care homes, we are not paying enough for social care. Providers of domiciliary care are handing back contracts to local authorities because budgets do not cover their increasing costs. Well, the day that you need residential care, isn’t that the rainy day? In other cultures, there is much greater reliance on the family for social care. One way to "fix" social care is to find a way of sharing the burden between those who need it, and taxpayers.