"Civilisation is judged on how it treats its weakest members."

Aristotle is right, but this also applies to the unborn, but at both ends of the spectrum, there is cruelty, indifference, torture and neglect. So this is what our 'civilisation' has been reduced to -
a victory for utilitarianism and a defeat for humanity, compassion and common sense.

What goes around will come around.

I agree SHRODE. The slogan, “Every child, a wanted child,” has been used by proponents of abortion as justification for ending the lives of “unwanted” children.

Now it appears that the children who managed to make it through are using a similar logic against their own parents: “Every parent, a wanted parent.” If a parent becomes “unwanted” then they are just forgotten about. Why not – if it was good enough to justify the killing of their siblings, why isn’t it good enough to justify abandoning the parents?

Of course, the “solution” to all this will be the legalisation and embracement of euthanasia. How much neater, quicker and cheaper it will be to subtly or not so subtly encourage Grandma or Grandpa to take the pill rather than hang around interminably using up the inheritance.

Just for you Murray, I promise to die before 2056.

There does that make you feel better sweetie?

“Aged care has become people farming where a crop of people produce profits all year round for facility operators. Putting the aged into socially isolated people farms is a national disgrace of which all must take responsibility.”

My mother ended her days happily in, first a low-care institution, then in an attached nursing home where she was cared for by loving, caring people who always did much more than they were paid to do. Aged care is not all bad, and it can be policed.

As for the cost of ageing, and the burden put on working people: get rid of income tax (which was supposed to be a temporary measure) and concentrate on consumption and many other taxes too numerous to mention here. That way there will be more people paying tax (including the old – there is not dignity in being ‘kept’) and there would be a reduction in big government, particularly as people who don’t pay tax now (loads of them) would start getting serious about politicians wasting their (taxpayers) money.

The great flaw in the article is the usual statist trick/error of identifying society with the state and the state with society.

Sooner, I hope, rather than later we will find the courage to ask the elderly how much further they want to go.
And not only ask, but listen to the answers.
How hard can that be? Ask and listen - we might just learn something.

There is one aspect of ageing that no-one has yet considered.

Current ABS estimates are that the percentage of the population aged over 65 in the year 2050 will be 32%.

Assuming that the current voting age remains unchanged, this means that in 2050 the percentage of the electorate over 65 will be 40%.

In addition, the closing of almost all superannuation schemes that pay an indexed pension in favour on those that just give the recipient a large capital sum, will mean that in 2050 around 15% of the electorate will be petty bourgeois - that is to say, people living off their capital.

You have to go back to the 1840's in England to find a period where the percentage was as high as this, and then it was because the working class did not have the vote.

It will mean an enormous shift to the right in government policy. After all, the bourgeois are not interested in unemployment (being all unemployed anyway), and would most probably, in George Bernard Shaw's words, be most interested in economic policies which would result in an real annual after-tax return of 5% on a sound investment, together with sharply reduced spending on welfare. Current Keynesian policies, such as over taxation of interest earnings and death duties, would be anathema.

We could even see a policy of limiting the right to vote to persons with a minimum level of capital.

Should be an interesting century.

plerdsus
As the article indicates, the ABS currently preducts that those 65+ will reach about 24% of the population, not 32%. In commbination with the declining proportion of under-18s, this will take them to about 30% of the voting age population.

What a croc of alarmist BS. If we had a public owned banking system that creates 6% of our GDP debt free, this would be $ 90 billion pa with no interest to build infrastructure and care for the aged and infirmed.

We are in enormous debt because we sold off 4 state Govt banks and the Commonwealth that created from nothing,some of the money to = your toil + inflation.

Eventually we almost all end up in prison then? Even the good people...Ho Ho Ho, I laugh!

Having worked as an RN in the aged care system for several years, I can tell you it isn't all bad!
While none of us ever wants to end up in a residential care facility, the odds are that one in 10 of us probably will.

The aged care reforms have made a difference in these homes, and believe me, they make you jump through hoops to prove the residents get good care.

I agree with a lot the author says, but I don't like the way he seems to suggest that families should be looking after their aged relatives at home until they die.

I wonder has the author ever had to care for a very demented relative at home before?

With no sleep overnight due to nocturnal wandering both in and outside the home, they also need to contend with faeces and urine all over the house because their parent doesn't know about toilets any more, refuse to wash and won't keep pads on either.

And while all this is going on, the parent can't even remember their kids faces anymore.

Who would condemn anyone for relinquishing care of these loved ones to a care facility? Dementia clients live for years these days, due to ever more effective medical care for the elderly.
And still no one has the guts to even have a referendum on euthanasia...

Suseonline, "Dementia clients live for years these days, due to ever more effective medical care for the elderly. And still no one has the guts to even have a referendum on euthanasia..."

It is 'interesting' that you connect the two, proving that seniors have a lot to fear from the feminist 'Progressives' aka Fabian Socialists aka International Socialists dabbling with any euthanasia policy.

Get admitted to hospital and if one is over 60 (55 for men maybe?), automatically get treated as a palliative care patient if any serious condition is suspected? Where the definition of a 'serious' medical condition would also be flexible where a senior is concerned.

Of course the availability of palliative care would be subject to budgetary constraints. That would be 'interesting' (once again) if another ageist PM like Julia Whatshername ever came along again. -You know, the 'big-boned', bottle redhead who wouldn't give a pension increase to age pensioners because 'they don't vote Labor', but she voted herself higher pay than Barack Obama, the US President!

Rhian,

The actual percentages that will be realised depend on a series of factors, one of which is the future level and age composition of immigration. The current projections presume a continuing high level of immigration, which would most likely be cut back if unemployment is a problem.

Whatever the actual figures is is fair to say that the proportion of petty bourgeois in the electorate will be substantially larger, resulting in profound political changes.

Yes that's right OTB.
When I am in charge, ALL male patients are potential euthanasia victims : )

As it happens, it IS male patients who are the strongest voices for euthanasia, so I don't get the feminist connection really'...

Suseonline,

That is the sort of frivolous post to be expected of someone who proposes euthanasia to solve the alleged 'problem' of too many dementia patients living too long:

<Suseonline, "Dementia clients live for years these days, due to ever more effective medical care for the elderly. And still no one has the guts to even have a referendum on euthanasia...">

You did say you worked in aged care? Maybe you need different work so you are not constantly affronted by elderly patients.

No, I'm not working in aged care anymore OTB.
You should work for awhile with dementia patients before you utter ignorant comments.

You have no idea what they and their families go through.
The absolute heartbreak of it all is why I left that job 5 years ago...

Suseonline,

Perhaps you would be so kind as to outline how your proposed euthanasia of dementia patients would work? How do you expect to get their informed consent for example, even if other ethical and policy problems did not exist?

However you are not talking about voluntary euthanasia and terminal patients are you? You (as in bureaucrats) and relatives would decide.

Nothing like free speech to 'out' the 'Progressive' fascists. How dare you presume to decide who should live and who should die. Your convenience, their death.

Not at all Onthebeach.
This is one subject I know very well.

The currently available "Advanced Health Directive" documentation will be able to direct health professionals and relatives into exactly what people want for themselves in the future, should a nasty medical situation arise.
This will eventually also include voluntary euthanasia once it becomes legal.

My mother has filled hers out and states that if she has a serious stroke, or similar, and is basically not able to move or speak, with no possibility of a future happy life, she does not want to be force-fed or artificially kept alive.

The same goes for a diagnosis of dementia.

She is able to say what she wants to happen now, while she is relatively well.
Obviously, once you have been diagnosed with dementia, and you have not already made one of these "Advanced Health Directives" legally for yourself, then it is too late, and you will have to dement mentally and physically until the time of your natural death.

Unless, of course, you have understanding relatives who become your legal guardian and refuse life-prolonging measures when you are unconscious and incontinent...

Mum doesn't agree with voluntary euthanasia like I do, but she doesn't want to be forced to stay alive either.

How do you feel about that Onthebeach?