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02-20-2011, 09:38 AM
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#21
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 413
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The movie "Logons Run" had a solution to the dying old issue. The philosophy of the movie (being exterminated at a young age) would help in many ways. We would never have to plan for retirment, we would not need long term care insurance. We would die healthy, and not be decrepid and we would die fast. Would also solve the social security issue, and most of the healthcare budgeting problems.
Crap, my palm button just turned red!!!!!
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02-22-2011, 10:58 AM
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#22
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Dryer sheet aficionado
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Winslow
Posts: 43
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GregLee
70 may seem pretty old to you, but I'll be 69 in two weeks. It doesn't seem old to me. I'm still mentally and physically vigorous, so maybe you should revise that time horizon upwards a little, unless you're already sickly.
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No, actually quite the opposite -- I'm in a near-Olympic state of health and fitness at 61 and have been for many, many years. My statement is not based on 70 seeming old, or even 80 seeming particularly old. My statement is based on the fact that I believe that, in today's world, people who think they can project what the world will look like and the economy will look like more than ten years from now are living in a fantasy-land. If the world and the economy remain reasonably stable, I will be fine economically at 70 and will simply set a new horizon -- but I doubt very seriously that they will. I am by no means a survivalist wacko, but I would certainly give odds that the next 10-15 years will see near-cataclysmic changes that will make conventional retirement-planning assumptions look laughable.
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02-27-2011, 02:28 PM
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#23
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 640
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For those who couldn't get enough of this thread, the New York Times just posted a review of the book.
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02-27-2011, 05:21 PM
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#24
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Smith
Posts: 743
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wishin&hopin
1. The idea that baby boomers will be able to make “90 the new 50” by eating right and staying physically and mentally active is bunk. “We cannot continue to base our image of old age on the extraordinary person, blessed by a combination of affluence and physiological hardiness, who remains ‘as sharp as a tack’ and takes up a new, youthful hobby – say, skydiving – in her nineties.”
2. The writer distinguishes between the “young old” (or “new old”) and the “old old.” The media like to focus on the young old and extrapolate their experience into the old old, but that’s not accurate. “In real old age, as opposed to fantasyland, most people who live beyond their mid-eighties can expect a period of extended frailty and disability before they die.” Alzheimer’s may only affect 10% of those over 65, but it affects nearly 50% of those over 85. Only 5% of Americans over 65 are confined to institutions, but after 85 the chances of ending up in a nursing home become 50-50.
3. If we succeed in lengthening life spans further through medical intervention, we’ll only be extending what is likely to be the most difficult and expensive period in a person’s life. “Longevity enthusiasts, especially in the boomer generation, never ask whether a longer life will necessarily be a gift; most are convinced that they can bend old age to their will through their own good behavior, reinforced by a little help from Big Pharma.” It’s a vain (in both senses of the word) hope. As is the idea that we'll die swiftly and gently in our sleep at home. “In the United States today, only about 20 percent of us die at home, although public opinion surveys repeatedly have shown that 90 percent of Americans – whether or not they subscribe to the hope of immortality – would prefer to end their lives in their own beds.”
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Sounds like there is a sweet spot, all things being equal, between 75 and 85 to kick the bucket. You're best years are behind you, but statistically the worst is yet to come. My plan of eating bacon morning noon and night once I hit about 70 and hoping for a massive heart attack around 80 isn't far off.
__________________
Retired July 4th, 2010 at age 43
Trout Bum, Writer, Full-Time Dad and Husband
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03-01-2011, 07:00 AM
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#25
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: DFW
Posts: 2,015
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A comparison. My father died at 67; lay down at 1 pm and was declared dead by 4 pm. My mother currently resides in a nursing home, age 90, eats, takes medicine, will never walk again, and barely remembers me. I read part of that book in bookstore and currently have it on library reserve. The author is accurate, but damn negative and decidedly left-wing. I have a goal of living until 100, but not to live in the conditions I see every day in the nursing home. Absolutely no quality of life. BTW: My mother saw her mother in a nursing home and swore she would never spend one day in one. When you lose control, the game is over.
__________________
Resist much. Obey Little. . . . Ed Abbey
Disclaimer: My Posts are for my amusement only.
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03-01-2011, 11:00 AM
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#26
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Hooverville
Posts: 22,983
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eagle43
A comparison. My father died at 67; lay down at 1 pm and was declared dead by 4 pm. My mother currently resides in a nursing home, age 90, eats, takes medicine, will never walk again, and barely remembers me. I read part of that book in bookstore and currently have it on library reserve. The author is accurate, but damn negative and decidedly left-wing. I have a goal of living until 100, but not to live in the conditions I see every day in the nursing home. Absolutely no quality of life. BTW: My mother saw her mother in a nursing home and swore she would never spend one day in one. When you lose control, the game is over.
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I would say that anytime after about 80, a swift painless or low-pain unforeshadowed exit dominates living longer, although some of us may live longer in quite good health and capacity.
Ha
__________________
"As a general rule, the more dangerous or inappropriate a conversation, the more interesting it is."-Scott Adams
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