Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (July 1, 2024)
One very unpleasant and seemingly unavoidable reality of living in a world with collapsing human demographics (fewer births, fewer marriages, later marriages, smaller families) is that most countries on earth now have too many older people and too few younger people – too many people who are no longer economically “productive” and not enough gainfully employed people who would support them through their taxes, insurance payments and with their actual physical assistance.
This approaching tsunami merely adds to the already dire situation in healthcare and social insurance systems in much of the world. The powers-that-be (the powerful policy makers who themselves have often never done a real day’s work in their lives) have responded to this problem by making the existing system ever more expensive and ever less effective and responsive to the needs of ordinary people. The entire monstrosity of a system has become like this due to ever more government interference & control, higher taxation and ever higher insurance premiums – we need to remind ourselves that any & all “insurance” behaves much like a tax.
The tail end of human life is now marked by the ever-increasing need for long-term and assisted nursing home care which is profoundly expensive. Both the insurance policies being marketed for this type of service and the actual service are incredibly expensive – so expensive that they are out of the financial reach of most people. And once again, public policy makers have responded to this predicament by having the government assume the financial cost for this type of service. In reality, most so-called “developed” economies on earth (these countries are primarily located in the Northern Hemisphere and in the so-called “western” cultural realm) are beyond bankrupt. In other words, their governments are now merely printing ever more money which is worth ever less and less. In short, we are heading for a train wreck of massive proportions.
In the USA, government interference in the area of social insurance began with the Social Security Administration during the Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Government interference in the American healthcare industry commenced with the passage of Medicare during the Presidential Administration of Lyndon Baines Johnson. As with anything else so huge that has gone so wrong, we need to start the process of turning this huge ship around – a process which cannot happen overnight. Government on all levels needs to be removed from the economy on all levels. Healthcare needs to be deregulated there needs to be massive legal reform to remove the ability for people and especially for lawyers to so easily, readily and lucratively engage in so-called malpractice lawsuits.
Another issue is that of people’s freedom to make choices with respect to their own healthcare – very much including end of life care. Not many jurisdictions in the world today have legally assisted suicide. In all cases where this is legal there are strict controls. At least two (2) medical doctors have to consent to the legally assisted suicide – I am talking here about cases with which I am familiar in both the Netherlands and in the State of New Mexico, both of which do have legally assisted suicide. Patients make this choice while they are still of sound mind. Their families (or close friends in the case of individuals with no family) are informed throughout the entire process. In all cases, the patient is terminally ill with no chance of recovery. By the time the legally assisted suicide is administered, the patient no longer has cognitive ability and is confined to a hospital bed.
I contrast this with so-called “right to life” jurisdictions such as the State of South Carolina, where terminally ill patients (many of them nursing home residents) are kept physically “alive” as long as possible through artificial medical means. Not only is this profoundly cruel, and with no more quality of life for the patient, but it is also incredibly expensive. I know of one case where a family has already spent more than USD $2 million to keep an elderly relative of theirs “alive” – the lady is basically bedridden and a vegetable.
No such personal medical decisions should be controlled by the government. Individuals and families should maintain the right to make such decisions for themselves and for their own family members. All of us have differing faiths and beliefs, and that diversity of opinion and belief is fine. On the other hand, none of us should ever try to impose our own personal beliefs upon others. These very personal issues should be kept out of the political realm – be we liberal, conservative or anything in between.
