September 04, 2004

GIMME MONEY:

Social security a bigger worry than economy (Japan Times, 9/05/04)

Nearly 70 percent of people in a recent survey hope the government will work for better social security services, topping for the first time the number of those demanding economic stimulus policies, the Cabinet Office said Saturday.

According to this year's survey on daily livelihood, 67.7 percent of the respondents said the government should reform social security programs like health care and pensions. The figure is up 5.8 percentage points from last year.

Meanwhile, 58.6 percent said the government should stimulate the economy, down 8.8 points from last year.

Economic stimulus had topped the list every year since 1998, when the government began checking what people expect. The annual survey, on which multiple answers are allowed, was introduced in 1958.


Ah, the future of the rest of the West--elderly population with no children, no religious beliefs, and no culture just wanting to die in comfort: they'll be good stewards of the nation, eh?

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 4, 2004 07:16 PM
Comments

or...life is beautiful, and we should all enjoy it while we have it.

Posted by: Perry at September 4, 2004 08:48 PM

As long as you're paying for it and not me.

Posted by: oj at September 4, 2004 08:57 PM

If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. 1 Cor 15:32b

Posted by: Gideon at September 4, 2004 09:13 PM

Deat Mr.Gideon,

My sentiment exactly.

And OJ, yes! Now your getting it. "To each his own" (maybe somewhere in the bible, but I dunno)

Posted by: Perry at September 4, 2004 09:37 PM

Perry:

No, no. You get to pay for the elderly to die in comfort.

From each according to his membership in the minority generational cohorts to them in the elderly majority.

Posted by: oj at September 5, 2004 12:00 AM

OJ,

Oh, you meant real world. Ok shouldn't we first start with limiting government sponsored and public school sanctioned illegitimacy.

Why start at the end of life cycle with the seniors when the big bang for the society overhaul buck would be breaking the vicious cycle of:

3-4 kids by age 20, section 8, welfare
Petty crime Juvenal detention,
Serious crime, jail
Halfway houses, homelessness
More crime, repeat cycle
Age 35-40 finally find God and go on disability

Of course the really bad part of this cycle is all the government involvement that we must directly pay for such as police, judicial system, incarceration cost, public school teachers, and social service workers...this list is long.

Ideally, citizens should have accumulated enough wealth by old age to pay for themselves if they lead productive lives as adults.

I said earlier the SS system is plain old fashioned welfare in that most of it goes out for reason other than the retirement of elders.

Posted by: Perry at September 5, 2004 08:51 AM

You can't jail them if you need to work them to pay for the elders.

Posted by: oj at September 5, 2004 09:35 AM

The combination of sophisticated robot helpers and the acceptence of a lowered standard of living will keep the Boomers from draining GenX dry.

Posted by: Michael Herdegen at September 6, 2004 03:57 AM
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