Longevity Crisis? Kill Grandma

[Guest guest]

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0606-26.htm

 

 

Published on Monday, June 6, 2005 by the Los Angeles Times

 

 

Longevity Crisis? Kill Grandma

by Barbara Ehrenreich

 

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.

 

The longevity-fighting Purple Heart, though, goes to the Center for

Consumer Freedom, funded by the tobacco and restaurant industries,

which bravely battles restrictions on indoor smoking, repressive

limits on blood-alcohol levels for drivers and the relentless liberal

bad-mouthing of salt, fat, sugar and meat. And what has the CCF gotten

for its efforts? A challenge to its tax-exempt status from Citizens

for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

 

Face it, nothing is really going to change until the federal

government tackles the problem itself. It might start drafting

60-year-olds, for example, for a few months of service in the Iraqi

desert. And what about transforming the Drug Enforcement

Administration into the Diet Enforcement Administration, with the

power to search drivers for stray bits of broccoli and tofu?

 

Of course, it could be argued that Bush's attack on the welfare state

will solve the longevity crisis without recourse to controversial

measures. Toss Gramps out of the nursing home, take away his Social

Security check and see how long he survives. Still, it's fair to ask:

Is Bush really doing enough, or is he being held back by his

oft-stated commitment to the " culture of life " ?

 

Here is the contradiction in the tiny, dark heart of American

conservatism: Its values are solidly " pro-life, " but its economic

policies lean toward death. While upholding the right of each stem

cell to blossom into a human, conservatives have curtailed the lives

of all multicellular citizens — by weakening environmental

regulations, for instance, and cutting social programs.

 

Right-wing ambivalence on life-and-death issues exploded into a

schizophrenic breakdown in the case of Terri Schiavo. With one hand,

the Republicans held her feeding tube firmly in place, while the other

hand reached for the ax to cut off the flow of Medicaid dollars that

were keeping that poor shell of woman alive.

 

It would take courage for a president to promote a consistently

pro-death outlook. Some Christian spokesmen will fret that we are on

the slippery slope to euthanasia, although they have never complained

about torture or war. Nevertheless, it might be tactful to frame the

new stance as a way of encouraging turnover — as at Wal-Mart, where

40% of employees leave every year — rather than death.

 

Get born, get into the crucial 18-to-35-year-old consumer demographic,

and have the good sense to get out before you've overstayed your

welcome. And it would take genuine heroism to confront baby boomers

with the question usually addressed to 18-year-old grunts: Are you

willing to die for your country? Like maybe right now? Because that's

what they want from us, folks, unless we can come up with a better idea.

 

Barbara Ehrenreich is the author, most recently, of " Nickel and Dimed:

On (Not) Getting By in America " (Owl Books, 2002).

 

© 2005 LA Times

[Guest guest]

What irony. If there is no connection, it certainly seems opportune for Mr.

Bush, that we'll have CODEX to deal with, at a time when it's become politically

undesirable for the administration, that people live longer.

-

califpacific

Monday, June 13, 2005 7:03 PM

Longevity Crisis? Kill Grandma

 

 

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0606-26.htm

 

 

Published on Monday, June 6, 2005 by the Los Angeles Times

 

 

Longevity Crisis? Kill Grandma

by Barbara Ehrenreich

 

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.