“The Treasury Inter-Generational Report suggests that by 2040, there will be twice as many people older than 65, and four times as many over 85. Spiralling social security and health care bills will result in a budget deficit of $87 billion if policy settings don’t change.”

One of the services that could be cut – if it really can be regarded as a service to anyone, including aged people themselves – is keeping people alive artificially when they have well passed their ‘three score years and ten’ dates.

Some people live to a very old age without much illness and cost to the community. Fair enough. But keeping most people alive merely by the administration of costly drugs is little fun for the recipients of this taxpayer largesse, and is enormously costly. Most of the ageing population politicians are continually moaning about would have been dead and buried long ago if it were not for the obsessions of scientists wanting to interfere with the natural life cycle and keep people alive, as though living on, half gaga, with no real interest in anything any more is something good.

Keeping old people alive, when many if not most of them, would be happy to slip away peacefully is idiotic, as is the taboo on euthanasia

RACE BASED BABY BONUS
How would it be, if the government looked at the fertility rates of the various ethnic groups, and made policy on the basis of retaining the status quo, OR strengthening the position of certain segments of the racial mix ? :) (Welcome to Malaysia in principle.. they don't have a specific policy like this that I know of)

RACE BASED BANK
and then..how would it be, if your access to low cost finance, specially entrepreneurial loans was based on your race... (Welcome to Malaysia...Bank BumiPutera=Sons of the soil)

RACE BASED EDUCATION POLICY
And then.. we have quotas of the number of people allowed to enter university which basically exlude one particular race, and open the door to another, plus some small minority indigenous races. (Welcome to Malaysia the 'NEP' New education policy.

And why would you do all this ? what could have kicked it off ?

Hmm looking back to a plane trip in a C130 from Vung Tau(Vietnam) to Butterworth in Malaysia, I recall the pilot informing us of the outbreak of RACE RIOTS which pitted the economically disadvantaged Malays against the economically progressive Chinese. The riots were over that very situation. "You have... we don't.. we want"

THE RESULTS.. today there is racial harmony, a sense of national pride, very little conflict, an international Airport which shames the best of Australia (all of ours put together) a Fast train (which we don't even have) and a booming economy.....

Hmmm.. perhaps they can teach us something about the positive aspects of 'racist' social policy :)

In Australia, I sense a long standing and increasing sense of hopelessness and cultural disadvantage among those of Anglo background. Cronulla was just a tiny sign of that.

THE NEXT POLITICAL PHASE.
With the outsourcing overseas of low and hitech jobs. The loss of most of our manufacturing occupations and the privatization of the 'Peoples Bank-CBA' (Thanx ALP) into a "licence to print money" shareholder based organization; the FTA which is Neo Colonialism into the US empire.. the only phase which we can have is CHAOS.

Leigh - - why stop with the elderly, what about all the drugs given to people with lifestyle diseases. High cholesterol, some type of diabetes, (perhaps even depression ?), could perhaps be managed by diet, exercise and commonsense, but we're paying billions to subsidise drugs to "treat" these conditions.

We're NOT excessively taxed by international standards, and anyway you get what you pay for and we still have a lot better public services than many other countries - who would want the American health system ?

We may have to change things as the population ages - possibly moving the retirement age to 68 would be a start.

Add people who smoke. They burden the medical system with their high cost lifestyle choices.

I agree. People who smoke should not be allowed to do anything at all.

I just read a report where smokers were costing the health system $750 million a year.

But tobacco excise raises over $2.8 billion per year. If we all give up smoking who pays the $2 billion? If everyone smoked maybe we could pay for our inadequate health system. We would all die earlier making euthanasia irrelevant. We could have an IQ test at 5 years old if too low you get a packet of Winnies to have at play lunch.

Then we could ban all sports because sports injuries cost too much. But then the alcohol industry would have nowhere to advertise so we would loose the alcohol excise more billions.

We could make everyone walk everywhere this would keep them fit. But we loose petrol excise more billions to be found.

Oh I forgot, these excises were illegally collected for decades. The High Court ruled in favour of the Porn Industry in the ACT. Why weren't these illegal taxes returned?