It's exactly what I mean. There is absolutely no value in hanging on to the last possible moment due to ever increasing levels of interventions.
Living longer is not "a good thing" if that life is costing (not just in financial terms) society and the country so much more and the person can not sustain an independent quality of life.
In 1946-47, when the NHS, National Insurance (state pensions), and related programmes were created the average survival after retirement (60 for women, 65 for men) was 10 years or so (average mortality was 75 for men and little later for women).
So pension funding only needed to last on average 10 years and there was no comprehensive costly life-sustaining interventions to keep people alive that would otherwise have popped their clogs.
Now the average age of mortality in men is 85 and 89 for women, and these are rising. And as these are averages there are a lot of people lasting a lot longer - many spend years sitting in a chair effectively waiting for Death to show up.
So now the same pension funding has to provide for 20 or more years AND there are many costly and life-sustaining health interventions and "social care" that add cost and load on a dwindling number of tax payers.
I'm a farm-boy born n bred, as is my father, who is now 86. He's been amazingly fit his entire life but the last two years he's going rapidly downhill due to onset of mild dementia, but also due to not accepting doctors advice on treatments and medicines (this he's been doing for 40 years!) and subsequently hitting crisis where there have to be expensive emergency interventions.
As far as I am concerned he is abusing the NHS - like those who are obese or mistreating themselves in other ways - and if it were up to me I'd refuse to treat his emergencies if he is not prepared to look after himself by simply taking medicines that would prevent the emergencies.
Personally, I'll kill myself when I can no longer be useful.
Humans need to learn from how the rest of the planet's breathing life-forms treat life... and death, and lose the sentimentality. The planet already has twice as many humans on it as it can naturally sustain.
Living longer is not "a good thing" if that life is costing (not just in financial terms) society and the country so much more and the person can not sustain an independent quality of life.
In 1946-47, when the NHS, National Insurance (state pensions), and related programmes were created the average survival after retirement (60 for women, 65 for men) was 10 years or so (average mortality was 75 for men and little later for women).
So pension funding only needed to last on average 10 years and there was no comprehensive costly life-sustaining interventions to keep people alive that would otherwise have popped their clogs.
Now the average age of mortality in men is 85 and 89 for women, and these are rising. And as these are averages there are a lot of people lasting a lot longer - many spend years sitting in a chair effectively waiting for Death to show up.
So now the same pension funding has to provide for 20 or more years AND there are many costly and life-sustaining health interventions and "social care" that add cost and load on a dwindling number of tax payers.
I'm a farm-boy born n bred, as is my father, who is now 86. He's been amazingly fit his entire life but the last two years he's going rapidly downhill due to onset of mild dementia, but also due to not accepting doctors advice on treatments and medicines (this he's been doing for 40 years!) and subsequently hitting crisis where there have to be expensive emergency interventions.
As far as I am concerned he is abusing the NHS - like those who are obese or mistreating themselves in other ways - and if it were up to me I'd refuse to treat his emergencies if he is not prepared to look after himself by simply taking medicines that would prevent the emergencies.
Personally, I'll kill myself when I can no longer be useful.
Humans need to learn from how the rest of the planet's breathing life-forms treat life... and death, and lose the sentimentality. The planet already has twice as many humans on it as it can naturally sustain.