Ageing

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Micilin

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Apparently ,we have doubled the age of the average human life over the past 200 years, and the BBC reports that one in three people born today will live to 100.

How will this change society?
 
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Most of than increase was from reducing infant mortality, largely from improved sanitation and nutrition, and vaccination. Only recently has a modest improvement occurred by treating the diseases of age.

It is not much help carrying on for extra years if you are destroyed by Alzheimers or crippled by a stroke.
 
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Main problem will be with pensions they assumed most people will drop off their perch at about 70 so they will have trouble maintaining the older population.

As for the strain on the health service I don't see that as a problem as people stay fitter for much longer, both my wife's and my parents were "old"
at 65, we are at that age and still "touch wood" fit and active, with at least most of our marbles. Now what was I going to do............
;)
 
It wouldn't be so bad if we could live to, say, 80 or 90 and still be active and then suddenly kick the bucket. But unfortunately, ageing is a slow and gradual degenerative process however long we live.

And the longer we live, the more reliant we become on crutches (real and metaphorical) and the bigger demands we make on the working population.
 
tony1851 said:
It wouldn't be so bad if we could live to, say, 80 or 90 and still be active and then suddenly kick the bucket. But unfortunately, ageing is a slow and gradual degenerative process however long we live.

And the longer we live, the more reliant we become on crutches (real and metaphorical) and the bigger demands we make on the working population.
Click to expand...

Given the choice I would rather live to 100 and have my heart give up whilst rogering a hot pair of twins or maybe triplets ;)
 
I suppose if one twin makes it to 100, the chances are the other one will too?

Although the wifes gran lived to her 100th year, her twin sister had died many years previously.
 
As mentioned earlier , the biggest problem is going to be the support of the elderly. Birth rates have fell so there isn't going to be the amount of younger people in work, paying taxes, NI ect to support pensions for the older generation. Future governments are either going to have to seriously raise the retirement age, or raise taxes etc to pay these pensions.
Mind you, the way this country's going, we'll probably die of poverty well before old age. (apart from MP's who'll still vote to accept their annual inflation busting wage rise)
 
In theory, if a genuine pension pot was started by state or private at , say 20 years of age, then the last ten years (say 65 to 75) would accrue a lot more than the first twenty . So maybe retirement wouldn't have to be extended as much as we think, specially if we were fit to work at that age?
 
The longer we live, the longer we will have to work to pay for our country's failings.
 
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