[awjr]

I watch what the USA is doing with healthcare, and I see this type of model being foisted upon the UK, and it's terrifying.

I recently got into a twitter spat suggesting that it was foolish of the Conservatives to be reducing spending in social services and the NHS as this was directly attacking their voter base as 70% of pensioners vote Conservative and a poorer NHS directly impacts pensioners more. There have been some articles indicating an extra 120,000 people have died in the UK due to austerity measures. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/tory-austerity-deat...

So the question is, is this a deliberate unwritten approach to try and kill off 'costlier' members of society? Is it better to encourage people to be fat and die off quicker, than to exercise, eat healthier, live longer, and create a long term social care cost?

I suspect epidemiological analysis the impact of this sort of policy has on a society demonstrates it kills the weak and infirm as well as the financially 'weak' members of society.

Think Norway got it right. Find a resource, tax it and place the tax in a pension fund. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Pension_Fund_of_Nor... Every resident of Norway is now a millionaire in terms of the social care available to each individual.

[FilterSweep]

> So the question is, is this a deliberate unwritten approach to try and kill off 'costlier' members of society? Is it better to encourage people to be fat and die off quicker, than to exercise, eat healthier, live longer, and create a long term social care cost?

Social Darwinism has been a running trope with the Cs. The problem is, Social Darwinism is fun until you're on the chopping block...... and so we now see some odd backpedalling in the 2010s now that some have gotten old.

I'd rather pay more to ensure everyone's livelihood is okay.

[greglindahl]

Do you find that calling a large number of people foolish generates a useful discussion, either on Twitter or on Hacker News?

[awjr]

Generally no, but it didn't start out that way. I just highlighted the oddity that a political party that relies on old people was implementing policies that were accelerating the death rates of their core voter group, and that this seemed to be an odd thing to do.

I was then accused of making a shameful statement. Data is data. Policy decisions have impact.

For example, when the government introduced mandatory seat belts, there was a rise in the number of pedestrians killed. People wearing seatbelts felt safer driving faster.