Posted on 06/08/2005 1:34:37 PM PDT by MsGail61
Longevity crisis? Kill Grandma By Barbara Ehrenreich Special to The Los Angeles Times June 8, 2005
A specter is stalking the Western world, and it looks a lot like Grandma. As President Bush has repeatedly put it, the problem with Social Security is that "baby boomers will be living longer." Not "too" long, he's careful to say, but long enough to create a fiscal catastrophe.
And it's not just Social Security. Medicare, as well as any company rash enough to have offered pensions, may eventually sink under the weight of its obligations to the elderly. A welfare state designed in the era of bacon, eggs and Lucky Strikes cannot expect to survive in an age of "active seniors" who wash down their Viagra with soy milk and think a six-pack is something you get at the gym.
So far, the policymakers' response has been to gut the welfare state before the greedy geezers can plunder it. For example, the Bush administration has achieved deep cuts in Medicaid, which supports many middle-class people in their post-golden nursing-home years, and it continues to fight for the evisceration of Social Security.
But can such namby-pamby solutions really get to the root of the problem? Isn't it clear that there are just too many old people around, luxuriating in their assisted-living communities and expecting the government to support their statin and beta-blocker habits? Does no one have the courage to confront the longevity crisis head-on?
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
I don't think the baby boomers will live as long as this generation of octagenarians has. God's promise in the commandments is a long life to all who honor their fathers and mothers. The boomers and the generation following them certainly have not led such godly lives and won't live to such an old age, so the problem may not be as severe as this author thinks.
We don't stop serving the good stuff just because the children are present, right?!
I know you're trying to say something, but somehow, I never understand what it is. I don't think I'm alone. I'm not trying to be insulting, but you just don't make sense most of the time.
How about a different age. Let's pick 15 for example.
In a day and age where that's common fare for the elderly, it's just a matter of time and they'll be shooting the old codgers up with suitible "donor" stem cells to restructure, renovate and rehabilitate their ancient body organs.
We may very well arrive at a time when folks will get selected to "pass on" based more on their relative decrepitude than on their age.
This time may be no more than 15 or 20 years in the future!
However, you can make up for that if you begin reading Science News. Try here http://www.sciencenews.org/ .
Oh, and I have a great sense of humor.
This granny won't go peacefully.
Armed and dangerous, and still not shakin'
An x-soldierette, no less!
Good. I earned EXPERT in machine-gun, and I still know how to use 'em if necessary. BTW, you are familiar with my work ~ another fellow and myself were down at Benning and John Wayne wanted some really good guys to do the background machinegun work for "The Green Beret".
WOW!!! Can we see you in any of the scenes? Whom should we look for???
:-D
My best work were the bursts of 3 and bursts of 4 on an M60. We also were directed to fire a 50 Cal until the barrel drooped so they could get that peculiar "cooking off" sound your rounds make under that condition.
We fired Israeli, Chinese and Russian weapons as well.
Babyboomers sucking up everything and making rules so nobody else can have any? I can't believe it!! I mean I'm shocked~~~
Cheers,
CSG
Back again this morning resolved and more peaceful. Realizing that I wasn't clear in my description of my 102 year old grandmother's situation, and that lack of clarity confused alot of folks on this thread yesterday
First let me say that my family is and will not be a burden to the government. We do not believe in taking from the government because we can financially take care of ourselves, thankfully. We are lucky people in that way.
Since Grandmother has lived so long, keeping her first in assisted living, and then a nursing home, and now at an alzheimer's center, what little social security she got has been used up just for basics. To keep Grandmother in the best care (which is still pitiful) means taking from our savings - from the savings of my father and his siblings - just so Grandmother can be treated with some dignity. As it stands now, what used to be a proud, dignified, well-educated, well-dressed, well-groomed lady has become something short of a wild baglady with mismatched clothes, no clothes, dirty, confused. Thankfully noone has stolen her wedding rings, yet.....
My original post #6 was my thoughts that, should Dad live as long as his mother, his healthcare will outlive his social security and dip into his savings - in order to keep him in as dignified a lifestyle as possible.
And will I live as long a life too?
Having seen my Grandmother waste away physically first - and now mentally, and having seen the depths of despair my father goes through watching his mother wither away, I hope I do not live as long a life. Grandmother wanted to "go to her husband" 20 years ago when she understood life and death. Now she understands nothing.
I am at peace with this discussion today. Peace to you.
What's tongue in cheek about it? We have to kill your parents and grandparents to make room for the illegals.
The only satisfaction in the young pillaging the old is listening to them squeal when it happens to them... always much sooner than they think it's going to.
On a scientific level, viable is a euphemism for "alive".
Then their children will get their plugs pulled too... it's a self-punishing crime. Don't get too self righteous. The boomers had their own issues that the greatest gen gave them to deal with, and their gen before them.
You raise your children the best you can and don't make the same mistakes your parents made and you end up making other ones.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.