The Latest WaPo 'Healthy Optimist' story e.g.
Want to live to be 100? Here’s what experts recommend
Has terrific stuff in it galore, to appeal to the brains of all the vegan leaf eaters, non-smokers, non-drinkers and marathon runners. Starting out by citing the case of Sister André, a French Catholic nun born Lucile Randon, who was the world’s oldest living person, but recently died at the age of 118. Then we learn:
"Now the two oldest living people are believed to be María Branyas Morera, a 115-year-old Spanish woman born in the United States, and Fusa Tatsumi, who lives in Osaka, Japan, who is also 115 but 52 days younger than Morera, according to a database by the Gerontology Research Group."
Pardon me, but who cares? Yes, as the author claims, these health and aging "experts" predict that the number of centenarians will continue to rise in the coming decades. But ask yourself: Is that good? I don't believe so, and that's not merely because my own lifespan is likely to be abbreviated before I reach 80 - thanks to metastatic prostate cancer.
From my point of view and seeing how much the medical treatments, tests etc. have cost so far(over $110,000 since 2012, paid mostly by Medicare) it is going to lead to a medical spending catastrophe. One this nation, and most of the developed world, can't afford. Medicare is forecast to become insolvent in 3 years or less, given how Medicare Advantage is bleeding it dry, e.g.
Here is the Truth: Medicare Advantage Is Neither Medicare Nor an Advantage
We further learn that based
on a 2022 estimate by the
United Nations, there are 593,000 centenarians around the world now and "it's a fast-growing age group". The United
Nations projects there will be 3.7 million centenarians
alive by 2050. Complicates retirement? You better believe it. Even if most of these high elder millions remain relatively healthy they will still have to deal with arthritis, mobility issues, and cancers that accompany old age. They will need home care and assistance.
This is relevant again as too
many are being deluded into pop-eyed foolishness published in the form of
bunkum in the mainstream media. In this case how you too can live to be
100+ just like a 105 y/o lady sprinter (Ida Keeling) on the cover of one Sunday's PARADE from a few years ago. Folks, do not be deceived by such fanciful longevity B.S. This lady
is the exception and not the rule, similar to one Orville Rogers
(another centenarian) featured in a MONEY magazine issue from
November, 2018, e.g.
"At just 2 percent inflation the gallon of milk that cost you $3.75 today will cost you $6.79 in 30 years."
That means a 65 year old today will need to sock away at least $5 million in a nest egg to be able to live to at least 100 years - and that assumes only one nursing home stay (or nursing assistance at home) of no more than 6 months. And that is one time over the balance of her life, i.e. duration of 35 years.
It is indeed this aspect of financing any extended longevity these longevity research geniuses (and most gerontologists) never broach, or provide practical solutions. How will the super elderly then maintain financial security and their implied independence until they finally shuffle this mortal coil? These are pertinent questions given Social Security will reduce benefits 25% by 2035 and Medicare faces insolvency by 2026 - meaning many seniors will face having to enter privatized plans. Neither of the articles in PARADE, or MONEY or an earlier one in TIME (March, 2015)e.g.
Address any of these matters, choosing to nibble around the edges with impractical baloney, babble and "hope" i.e. "corporations will have to change" which is not a plan. WHO is going to make them change? A 105 year old granny who likes to do sprints? Give me a break.
TIME - in its own take- wrongly assumes in its prologue to the initial piece that: "Everyone wants to live longer", but that desire comes with caveats galore for rational folks . For example, why would anyone today, at say age 67 or 68, want to live to even 100 when numerous "hells" are set to be unleashed especially as climate change hits numerous tipping points? These are projected to lead to drying up of all water reserves in the West and collapse of power grids amidst 6-month long heat waves. Think of being trapped in a baking home - ambient temperature of 100-105F -and no a/c and possibly no water either? Really want to live to 100 to enjoy that?
If you think the climate hiccups being experienced now - including the constant polar vortex intrusions, once in a century floods, January F5 tornadoes and superstorms - are a big deal, stay tuned for the first year of no seasons and ensuing heat waves lasting 90-120 days with mean temperatures 100-110F. Even before then, say by 2025-2030 we will likely see electrical blackouts over extended periods, water shutdowns (or breakdowns of decaying urban water delivery systems, since we haven't done shit to repair them) and even power grids collapsing from excess demand - with tens of millions trying to "stay cool", keeping thermostats at 81F.
Fortunately, facing off against the longevity nuts we have another realist and strong rationalist, the late Barbara Ehrenreich, who has been trying to get more elderly to raise their consciousness regarding death. To treat it as a transition and not something to be feared and despised, e.g
You can think of death bitterly or with resignation, as a tragic interruption of your life, and take every possible means to postpone it. Or, more realistically, you can think of life as an interruption of an eternity of personal nonexistence, and seize it as a brief opportunity to observe and interact with the living, ever surprising world around us."
Of course, most Americans are squeamish in terms of death - even discussing it, tending toward euphemisms- and more likely to buy into the codswallop of the longevity researchers.
No comments:
Post a Comment