Do old people need to die?

Drifterwood

Superior Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Posts
18,677
Media
0
Likes
2,811
Points
333
Location
Greece
Please don't get upset by my style of headline writing.

I just wonder how much the change of demographics in the West, particularly with regard to extended longevity and all its constituent effects, is affecting us.

Free up housing demand, repay our debts through inheritance, fill up our treasuries with death duties etc etc. I know the Banks were planning on this.
 
Last edited:
D

deleted3782

Guest
I'm pretty sure we will all die. :rolleyes:

I suppose it depends whether you see "seasoned citizens" as productive members of society or drains on our resources. Perhaps the challenge is looking beyond our traditional perception of elders as those who need to be placed in nursing homes, and instead, integrate elders with the whole of society so that their best talents can be used. Generally speaking, they are patient babysitters, they are wise councilors, they are prudent advisors, and deliberate workers (my father excluded :tongue:). So why would we want to ponder the need for their deaths?
 

Gl3nn

Experimental Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2008
Posts
1,411
Media
0
Likes
12
Points
123
Location
Somewhere in the universe
Sexuality
90% Gay, 10% Straight
Gender
Male
Well, first of all: No.

But I know where you are coming from. Here in Belgium old people take up a big part of the money. Social security...most goes to them (pensions, health, ...)

I don't think I can count on a pension anymore. So saving is the message!
 

Principessa

Expert Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2006
Posts
18,660
Media
0
Likes
135
Points
193
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Female
Do old people need to die?
Please don't get upset by my style of headline writing.
I just wonder how much the change of demographics in the West, particularly with regard to extended longevity and all its constituent effects, is affecting us.

Free up housing demand, repay our debts through inheritance, fill up our treasuries with death duties etc etc.
Yes, because we can prolong life; but not quality of life. What good is it to live to be 110 if all your friends and most of your family are dead? What about the physical, financial, and emotional burden to family caregivers? I don't like to think about it, but I understand that death is inevitable and necessary.
 

D_Jared Padalicki

Account Disabled
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Posts
7,709
Media
0
Likes
161
Points
133
Well, first of all: No.

But I know where you are coming from. Here in Belgium old people take up a big part of the money. Social security...most goes to them (pensions, health, ...)

I don't think I can count on a pension anymore. So saving is the message!

What this man said, I don't want people to think later when I'm old that I have to die. So no, they don't need to die, but eventually will die.
 

B_starinvestor

Experimental Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2006
Posts
4,383
Media
0
Likes
3
Points
183
Location
Midwest
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
The baby boomer generation is the biggest demographic group in US history. Those on forms of public assistance, Medicaid/Medicare, Social Security, etc., represent a considerable wieght on government dollars.

That being said, they are also the wealthiest generation ever, and a tremendous transfer of assets will occur over the next 10 - 20 years. Additionally, they have been more fiscally responsible than their children.

Its plausable that this credit crisis will make current generations much more fiscally responsible for decades to come, and may ultimately be advantageous to the economic infrastructure of the global economy. Its highly unlikely that credit will ever be available, even fractionally, the way that it has for the past 8 years.
 

houtx48

Cherished Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2006
Posts
6,900
Media
0
Likes
308
Points
208
Gender
Male
did a governor from colorado once say something along same line and caught all kinds of shit for saying it, he was called governor gloom after that.
 

Drifterwood

Superior Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Posts
18,677
Media
0
Likes
2,811
Points
333
Location
Greece
Planning on accelerating the process for somebody that say …… has you in their will or someting? :tongue:

LOL - a few years ago, I realised that I was worth more dead than alive. I have sorted that :biggrin1:

My point, is that the finance people plan many years in advance. They were planning on three score years and ten, not four score years and some and the "medical profession" taking all the old folk's savings. Maybe they have now decided to take it for themselves anyway. Amongst other things of course. We're not a patient lot. Patient - get it? :eek:

Is it any surprise we have waiting lists when we call ourselves patients?
 

b.c.

Worshipped Member
Verified
Gold
Joined
Nov 7, 2005
Posts
20,540
Media
0
Likes
21,779
Points
468
Location
at home
Verification
View
Gender
Male
Do old(er) people need to die? Well...need or not, we will...eventually. We ALL will. And you don't necessarily need to be "old" to do that.

But hey, as one "baby boomer" I'd give you this advice: have a little more patience. All that shit that we've worked and busted or asses for all our lives will indeed eventually fall into your little laps...

...someday.
 

ripsrips

Legendary Member
Verified
Gold
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Posts
1,315
Media
10
Likes
2,459
Points
443
Location
California (United States)
Verification
View
Sexuality
69% Straight, 31% Gay
Gender
Male
Do old people need to die? quote]

Depends what you consider old?...My twin nephews saw my employers daughter who is HOT said look at her she hot...yeah but she's really really old...she's only 35...that's coming from a couple of 17 year olds.
 

b.c.

Worshipped Member
Verified
Gold
Joined
Nov 7, 2005
Posts
20,540
Media
0
Likes
21,779
Points
468
Location
at home
Verification
View
Gender
Male
I'm no heir apparently, BC.

Do you think the generation after you isn't working so hard?

That's an honest question.

I can't speak in generalities for the generation that came after, or for their prodigy for that matter. Some are working their asses off. And some are still working our asses off (lol).

I have to admit though that I've had to rethink some assumptions I had made about the younger generation's ability to rise to the occasion and get involved when and where it really counted.

By virtue of their vote they have proven they are able to rise to a cause, to an idea and to embrace it (and a candidate) on the basis of logic and principles... of the ideal itself, rather than fall for the usual rhetoric, bullshit, spin, and deception.

In that regard alone they have turned out to be made of a whole lot better "stuff" than what some of us had feared... and overall have done us proud.

So maybe all that effort (on our part) to steer them right and not fuck up in the same ways we did paid off...maybe while they were pretending not to listen to a thing we were saying they were listening all along....

Nahhh. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:

D_Myer_Dogasflees

Experimental Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2008
Posts
478
Media
0
Likes
6
Points
103
NO, besides for the economics question in this thread. People don't need to die. Ignorant people do, yes, and if they think that dying is a tradition, then please leave them, we don't need anymore fools in this world.

It would also be much more economically fortunate if people found a fountain of youth, if this had happened, the educated will be much larger in number, and the cost of educating the population would also be drastically lowered, as a much smaller fraction now are dependents. The educated would be much more educated, and there would be more educated, thus more wealth and a better life for all.
 

D_Fiona_Farvel

Account Disabled
Joined
Nov 27, 2007
Posts
3,692
Media
0
Likes
71
Points
133
Sexuality
No Response
I am biased because I feel the world is overpopulated, but, yes, I think humans should have a reasonable life span.

Earlier this year, I read a report by, I believe, the U.S. DHHS that stated the U.S. has entered a period where for the first time, there are more people over 65 than five and under. I think that we are following the same trend as Europe and parts of Asia, where there is a very real issue with aging populations and lack of replacement population.

Eventually, or actually, within a few decades, the elder population will be a drain on resources, particularly without a replacement workforce.

Europeans are waiting longer to have children and producing fewer than in previous generations. I read the burgeoning replacement population is mostly immigrant; however, even immigrants are not producing enough children to mitigate the effects of an aging population on the state.

The U.S. is not quite at that point due to a higher birth rate, but even that is bolstered by births to foreign-born people, which is something like 20% of all births in the U.S., and seems to show a decline in native birth rates. Which makes me think in 50 years we could have a 50%+ majority of the population over 50, and really be unable to support that shift.

I’m not stating we should go all Soylent Green on people, but without death within a reasonable period, we need higher birth rates, to greatly raise the retirement age, and new industries to employ the large, multi-generational workforce. Without that a majority elder population will devastate the West.
 

b.c.

Worshipped Member
Verified
Gold
Joined
Nov 7, 2005
Posts
20,540
Media
0
Likes
21,779
Points
468
Location
at home
Verification
View
Gender
Male
lol...all this interesting rationalization of why "old" people "need to die".

...be interesting to read their take on the idea in, say...30 years or so, when people start referring to them as "old". lol