As the high costs of Medicare and Social Security make it difficult to impossible for working people to pay their (confiscatory) taxes, Baby Boomer elderly will become second class citizens. They will be attacked and murdered in their homes to reduce their numbers, and the police will turn a blind eye.
Then euthanasia will be legalized, first state by state and then nationally, to take care of the Baby Boomer problem. Elderly family members will be encouraged to "take the needle" so that property can be passed on to family members whose need is greater. Simply sign the official government kiss-off form, drop your elderly parent off at the hospital, and get your hands on that property.
Pro-lifers will be caught between their beliefs and balance sheets. They will suggest that Social Security cease to be a check, but changed to payment-in-kind. Social Security villages would be set up on abandoned government installations, and indigent Baby Boomers would be fed, clothed and housed at government expense, but no money would change hands. US Geriatric Hospitals, merged with the VA Hospitals, would take care of their medical care and be a substitute for Medicare, which would be abolished due to its high costs.
It will take another generation before family ties can be estabished on a basis of trust without the elderly fearing that younger family members will drop them off at the government-run suicide parlor to get their money.
And you want to euthanize me?
Sounds quite a bit like a Gen Xer childhood...
Lordy Lordy you are grim:)
Spooky.
When I read Death of the West a couple of years ago I was disturbed. Your post in light of that makes sense to me and that is frightening.
I certainly hope that America does not follow the path that the Europeans seem to be on and unable to get off. We need to remove the elected (professional carrer) politicians who prove that they are without real vision and good conscience.
That's possible -- euthanasia is (or was) supposed to be purely voluntary in Holland, but people are pressured to do away with themselves and sick or handicapped children are disposed of. Health care may be rationed and those beyond a certain age will be denied life-saving treatment -- this is the situation in Canada and Britain.
I don't think that involuntary euthanasia will be legal in this country (religious sentiment is too strong) but many may be discreetly dispatched (either actively or passively left to die) -- even now, nursing homes are full of people with few, if any visitors. Who will miss them? Who cares?
Pro-lifers will be caught between their beliefs and balance sheets. They will suggest that Social Security cease to be a check, but changed to payment-in-kind. Social Security villages would be set up on abandoned government installations, and indigent Baby Boomers would be fed, clothed and housed at government expense, but no money would change hands. US Geriatric Hospitals, merged with the VA Hospitals, would take care of their medical care and be a substitute for Medicare, which would be abolished due to its high costs.
It think that likely. Actually, a century ago, the indigent elderly might go to a government institution to be looked after.
It will take another generation before family ties can be estabished on a basis of trust without the elderly fearing that younger family members will drop them off at the government-run suicide parlor to get their money.
Family members have an obligation to look after one another: parent to child, spouse to spouse, child to parent. Each person also has an obligation to look after him or herself.
Sounds like too many viewings of The Omega Man and Soylent Green.
Your European example has a flaw when applied to the States: Europe has embraced a model of expedience over rights that comprehends all the facets of man-to-government relations implied by the claims of socialism. We haven't, and the ideological claims of inherently authoritative governments and their theoreticians have no traction here. We spit on their cradle-to-grave ideology and their value of universal supinity before a sovereign government that leaves them defenseless against the euthanasts. When was the last time a European government impeached a political kingpin for insulting the People? America's done it twice in the last 30 years.