This may come as a shock to some people, but once you retire, you're of no financial use to the government of the country in which you live, and thus the government has no financial incentive whatsoever to invest in your longevity or long-term health. In fact, if you think about it, governments that have any sort of social programs, including social security, save money when you die as soon as possible after retirement. If you live into your 80's or 90's, you are costing the government a lot of money over the long haul, whereas if you die the minute you hit 66 or 67, you've lived out your productive, tax-paying life, and yet have not cost the government by staying on the public payrolls.
Not surprisingly, some people say the government even hopes you die younger, or that the U.S. government in particular is promoting prescription drugs and discrediting nutritional supplements to make sure no one lives very long. I think that's a rather sinister assumption. I don't believe in some giant conspiracy to make everybody ill just to prevent the government from going bankrupt.
Frankly, I don't think our government has the financial sense to prevent bankruptcy in the first place. We're already bankrupt. Social security is already broke. What will it matter if the government is a little more bankrupt because people are living longer and collecting more social security? This massive government theft from private citizens is a system that's going to collapse anyway. Kiss your social security deposits goodbye if you're under 40. Chances are, you'll outlive social security's solvency by a long shot.
Or, to save it, our lawmakers will just keep raising the retirement age to make sure nobody qualifies to collect. Pretty soon it will hit 70, then 75, and then 80. All they have to do is raise the age to the point where fewer than 5% of the population even lives that long. Let's face it: social security is just a legalized Ponzi scheme -- a system of generational theft that takes money from one group of working people and hands it over to another. And just like a classic Ponzi scheme, the promises can't be met. The money simply isn't there any more, and some time in the next two decades, the public is eventually going to figure this out.
Regardless of what you believe on this issue, it's sort of a moot point, because our nation is going bankrupt anyway, and much of that bankruptcy is caused by health care costs. Today, our health care costs absorb 25 percent of our gross domestic product. One out of every four dollars is spent for healthcare, and that number is rising. It is bankrupting our nation, and just as significantly, it is reducing our competitiveness in the global marketplace. It's now comparatively cheaper for employers to hire people in other countries, not just because the hourly wage costs are lower, but increasingly because the health care costs are more affordable.
We have a worsening health care crisis in this country, and yet no one is talking about real solutions. The only discussions on the table are about shifting money from one party to another, lowering prescription drug costs, passing the buck, shuffling around paperwork, and basically just changing who's accountable for the bankruptcy, rather than actually trying to make people healthy.
We need to start investing in prevention, but of course, as I've pointed out many times, if we actually had a healthy population, the government wouldn't be able to afford it. Taxes would have to go up considerably if the average lifespan increased by only five years. And if people started eating fruits and vegetables, if the food supply was cleaned up to remove metabolic disruptors and toxic ingredients, and if hydrogenated oils were banned, then the average lifespan in this country would increase even further. That will cost the government billions of dollars that it doesn't have. Which means, of course, we'd have to sell more treasury bills (government debt) to China and Japan.
So again, some people might say that these toxic ingredients are still allowed in the food supply -- that the FDA allows companies to use hydrogenated oils and sodium nitrite and high-fructose corn syrup -- because we have to keep the population chronically diseased. They say it is not only good fiscal policy for the federal government, but it also creates generous profits for the pharmaceutical companies. That last part of it is certainly true: Big Pharma makes billions treating disease symptoms caused by toxic food ingredients.
But I don't think our federal government has the single-minded focus necessary to have an organized campaign of early deaths just to save public funds. However, there's no denying the financial cause and effect of longevity versus dying shortly after retirement. When people die shortly after retirement, they save the government a big pile of cash.
It's not a conspiracy, it's just public health complacency.
You can bet that if there were a system where people somehow paid more money to the government for every day they lived past 70, we'd see all sorts of government-funded investments in longevity research. They'd be banning dangerous food ingredients and toxic prescription drugs daily. Cigarettes would be outlawed. Junk food advertising would be banned. Subsidies would be offered for monthly fitness club memberships. And the average lifespan of U.S. citizens would skyrocket.
But that's in la-la land. In the real world, nobody makes any money when you live longer. The only person who benefits is you.
Your internal conspiracy theory
You want a conspiracy theory? I'll give you one: most people conspire to kill themselves before retirement age by avoiding exercise, eating processed foods, refusing to take nutritional supplements and gulping down dangerous prescription drugs. If there's anyone to blame for dying early around here, it's the people who refuse to take care of their own health.
I mean, let's face it: an informed consumer doesn't have to eat hydrogenated oils at all. C'mon... it's listed right there on the label! You can't blame the FDA or federal government for your health problems when you're the one wolfing down another five donuts at dessert. And don't blame social security for the fact that your own food and lifestyle habits add up to an average lifespan of about 53. That's your own fault, not the government's. Even people who know what's unhealthy still manage to conspire against their own good sense and eat that stuff anyway.
That's the real conspiracy here, folks.
Because remember this: you can't control the lawmakers in Washington. You can't control the future of social security. You can't even control the FDA. But you can darn well control what you put in your own mouth. Your health is the one thing about your future that you do control.
So if you want to be a fiscal patriot, go ahead and die early to save the government from bankruptcy. But if you want to be healthy, focus on those things you can control and make the best of them. This nation may end up flat broke, but at least you can walk away from it all with your health fully intact.
To me, that's a lot more valuable than a bunch of IOUs from a government that's already neck-deep in the tar pit of financial ruin.
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