Lonely deaths in most liveable cities

Reposted from NewsHound – see more articles there.
Sydney has again featured among the worlds best and most liveable cities. Vancouver heads the list.
"Excellent transportation, telecommunications and utilities helped Vancouver, British Columbia take the top spot in The Economist's ranking of the world's most livable cities; not a single U.S. city makes the top 10."
This is the Sydney where no fewer than seven decomposed bodies of elderly people have been found in the past month; the latest found on the eve of a government plea for neighbours to look out for each other.
Government has long since absolved itself of responsibility for those on the degrees of society and the rest of us are encouraged to put our own 'wealth generation' effort over the welfare of the community.
This is the case across western economies which put so much store in coin, at the expense of social structures; which leads to an interesting set of thoughts.
Vancouver, for instance, has an ugly underbelly of homeless and unwanted marring its 'best city' landscape. Melbourne, another top city, has perpetual and open gang warfare. Sydney has its forgotten elderly population.
What of all those great cities which come no where near making the list. Surely what makes a city liveable is a vibrant, robust social structure. It is a collective pride and energy to make things work. A city is, after all, a social entity, not merely roads and buildings.
Focus on the 'holy' dollar might serve to create an economic strength, but the cost is in devaluing the basics strengths of good communities. We see the results in increased drug related crime, in the massive increase in the dollar value of white collar crime, in the growing despondency and despair which leads many to social alienation.
Greed is replacing caring, selfishness is replacing community and the effects are being felt right down to the basic unit of society, families. If families are under stress, what hope is there for the next level, neighbourhoods? As the sydney example shows, it is possible to live and die in a densely crowded environment without anyone else noticing.
It is a chilling prospect, societies devotion to money is already leading us down the path to becoming lonely individuals, albeit, some rich ones. Governments or at least their corporate sponsors are leading the way. Like sheep, we are following, despite the fact there will be few beneficiaries in reality. The revelation of elderly and fringe social dwellers simply dying unnoticed should be a warning to us all.