Longevity Crisis? Kill Grandma. - LAT

[kliljedahl]

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 of the middle class 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?

There are exceptions — a few Americans brave enough to try. Some credit should go to Burger King for its new "Enormous Omelet Sandwich," and to Hardee's for its "Monster Burger" (two one-third-pound patties.) Nor can we neglect the manufacturers of the various cardiovascularly compromising painkillers, such as Celebrex and Vioxx. In addition, Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company whose aggressively marketed hormone replacement therapy pill turned out to cause breast cancer and heart disease, deserves some retrospective recognition.

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ehrenreich6jun06,0,3457719.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[kenny blankenship]

1. Ah, the view from the corporate boardroom 100 floors up

where the air is clean and crystalline,
from which people look like clots and gaggles of ants, to be squished when they outlive their usefulness. Not ants even.
Aphids.
But there IS a way to redeem these useless eaters for the corporate system of value. You know where it's heading don't you?
That's not tofu you're eating!

(Why just squish them when we can pulp and juice them!)

[whistle]

2. Maybe assisted termination centers would be the answer....

...like those that were shown in the movie "Solent Green". If a senior can no longer pedal a bicycle generator for at least six hours a day and work for their meals and board, ship them home! Besides, since when has it been the obligation and duty of younger people in society to support the elderly?

[0007]

3. Make euthanasia a reality and I guarantee ya' that half of the oldies

would be checking out today. Living is no big fucking deal in today's world when no one wants you and every pathological condition of mind and body is at your finger tip.

[Sugarbleus]

4. "Chilling" article.................

Someone stole my thoughts: Solent Green and dying chambers. NEXT!

Gotta tell you, I'm closer to geriatric than not. This mindset is already filtering down to "my world". And NO, it's NOT pleasant to be alive as an aging or disabled person these days...Unless you're Babs Bush :puke:

Wealth and Classism, Wealth and Classism, Wealth and Classism on and on.

That's all that seems to matter to Americans these days. Society has reverted to a caveman mentality. Only the strongest and wealthiest will survive.

What a screwed up country.