[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'M')y thot is that some old ppl actually have kids that may care to help them.
I do know some little about truly lifesaving medications such as insulin, but also about snake oil medications as profit centers:

Am I snoring or is it my jittery leg problem or perhaps I need help sleeping more than ten hours or should I have a Botox injection?
I'm thinking we'll live longer without the cost of Snake Medicine Marketing.

[Bella]

Actually the die off has already begun as global warming and desertification combine to create "perfect storms" and other natural disasters that create mass mortality. There are too many of our species, we infest our mother earth and due to our misbehavior She is reducing our numbers. 100 thousand in a tsunami, thousands more in a cyclone, then hundreds of thousands more by earthquake (not to mention the various epidemics, famines, droughts and other banes to humanity). Anybody who thinks it is still buisness as usual just isn't paying attention. Yes, the very young, the very old and the very poor are the most vulnerable, but all the cash in Citibank wouln't save you if you are on the beach when that 30 foot wave crashes in. America is lucky so far but the squeeze is on. We have been insulated from most of the horror so far but there is hardly a place where bad things can't happen. Most Americans are vulnerable in a different way, through learned helplessness. Most folks have no idea how to grow a seed or make a shirt. They don't know how to make a fire or clean a rabbit (assuming they could catch one) and physically many are so obese and hypertensive that they will be useless even to save themselves. It doesn't have to be this way...WAKE UP.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', 'W')hat scares me are the Paxil CR and Zolof junkies who will end up going cold turkey.

[joelcolorado]

It all depends on the severity of the calamity. If we simply get short on things, or money gets tight due to rising costs, the diabetics and heart patients and transplant and cholesterol and liver and other ailments will kill ppl first and fast.

Then there will be the premmie babies not surviving, nursing homes closing, poor farms and job losses. Who knows.

I believe we will have a depression due to the fact that it has been shown that is how the RICH get the money back from the middle class. Money is too spread out right now.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', 'Y')ou know they dress more like I do than the average crackhead. Makes them harder to spot.

[BigTex]

If it's bird flu that sneaks up on us while we're wringing our hands over peak oil the old and poor may do okay.

They did okay in the 1918 outbreak.

Bird flu hits the young and healthy the hardest.

The future is a bear.

[joelcolorado]

Most old ppl I know have diabetes or heart problems that require medication. So they will go fast. You cannot live without insulin and there will be no heart bypasses etc.

I recall that when I was a kid a bypass was risky surgery. Now they do it on 95 year old ppl . No wonder health care is high and medicare is broke.

I am not cold enough to suggest that we dont treat the elderly. Not at all. But our medical advances has caused us to live so long that its putting a real strain on medicare and social security.

My father in law drew 25 years of pension and made more there than working 45 years. He probably had 2 million dollars worth of health care that extended his life twice that I remember. Or he would have died for sure.

The boomers will make this worse as there are so many of them.

[vision-master]

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgmWwMheXkk]Only the good die young
[/url]

[joelcolorado]

Of course, the elderly and poor are already dying from lack of medicine or inability to pay for it. Unbelievable in this day and age.

I dont know what the answer is as competition is what drives excellence in medicine. If the drug companies dont make a profit, then they wont stay in business. Plus the damned lawyers make it increasingly more expensive for them to continue too.

No answer for sure. Just depressing. Eat right, excercise and take as much care of yourself as you can. The problem is we want to be fat and lazy and take a pill to solve the problems caused by that.

STUPID

[vision-master]

Stress will kill you.......... Fat and lazy won't!

[joelcolorado]

You have got to be kidding ?
Cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, plugged arteries. What do you think my wife treats ppl for. Not for being in shape.

I would be 100% of her patients are fat and lazy. Its the american way and just the way we are.

Do you think it started with television? People come home and flop? I do. That and ease of life.
My dad said things were pretty tough still up until the mid 50's. Then ppl started to have more money etc. Everyone had one car when I was growing up. Men walked to work or the wife stayed home all day.

I went to the grocery yesterday and all the good food was the most expensive. I was shocked. Chips and candy and cookies are cheap. You can get any of that for $1 on sale and who doesnt pick up several. Stand in line and look in the carts around you and you can see what we purchase.

Its so hard to change. I wanted to get some licorice and pistachios and pringles. All on sale and on those tempting end displays by the register. Marketing is great tool.
jj

[vision-master]

Genetics

[IgnoranceIsBliss]

Don't forget those people who have to use the motorized scooters just to move around. My favorite is the 500 lb person on a scooter who eases up to the buffet at your local cheap family restaurant. (I've seen countless examples of this here in Georgia)

There are so many people who have high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. A short walk outside in the summer heat would kill a lot of us. Outside labor is out of the question for so many Americans due to our high rate of obesity and atrophy.

Families are also seperated geographically these days, so many older folks are on their own.

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', 'W')hat scares me are the Paxil CR and Zolof junkies who will end up going cold turkey.

[hope_full]

The young and the healthy and the strong were the ones who died in the Flu Epidemic (pandemic, really) of 1918.

However this time, I think it's going to be the super-chubby and the very poor.

We are living so far off where we're supposed to be. The stress and the pollution and the junk food and the sitting on our arses are not good for the body, mind or soul.

I really believe that getting back to a way of living that is more aligned with our divine design is going to be a blessing to our health - if we can keep food supplies and water systems pure. People like to credit modern medicine with longevity, but my study of history makes me think that it was more about increased hygiene, cleaner food supplies and better health practices.

HF

[Byron100]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joelcolorado', 'W')ithout lawsuits there would be less costs to the doctors for liability insurance too. I know both sides. Lets take this further. Food is a basic need. So
NO PROFIT IN FOOD EITHER.
No profit in gasoline,,,youhave to have it.
No profit in anything for that matter.
THINK, profit is what drives competition and makes medicine so good here as far as safe etc.

Who is going to work 85 hours a week on call all the time etc. like my wife if there is no money in it. Might as well work at the quick shop etc. and then you can get your health care from some tech.

Profit is not a dirty word. Without it, no one has a job......NO ONE>

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', '
')I hope so. My best friend is bi-polar. He has to take 2-3 diferent perscriptions a day to stay functional. One of them is A heavy dose(75mg) of Paxil CR. I have seen a couple of manic outbursts when he is off his meds. It builds up like a pressure cooker then goes off.

[JJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IgnoranceIsBliss', 'D')on't forget those people who have to use the motorized scooters just to move around. My favorite is the 500 lb person on a scooter who eases up to the buffet at your local cheap family restaurant. (I've seen countless examples of this here in Georgia)

There are so many people who have high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. A short walk outside in the summer heat would kill a lot of us. Outside labor is out of the question for so many Americans due to our high rate of obesity and atrophy.

Families are also seperated geographically these days, so many older folks are on their own.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Dreamtwister', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joelcolorado', 'H')as anyone given thought to what is going to happen as the price of oil and other power goes up significantly.

[joelcolorado]

GOOD BOOK TO READ

By Studs Terkel, Hard Times. About the depression and all first hand accounts.

The inner cities will be terrible. Just like Katrina. People waiting on help that never comes. So, so dependent on others. Makes me sad