Well... when I started this thread I was in reflective mood and TBH I didn't expect much in the way of responses, but clearly it stimulated some quarters.
WRT assisted dying - we (SWMBO and I) are in favour of some form of clarification as to whether your loved one, partner, or doctor can ease the way to a painless managed departure when the time is right. This may be from a selfish point of view as we have no children. As ever, the devil is in the detail and any legislated approach will probably be a long time in coming.
WRT pensions - I guess we are both lucky to have retired early on final salary pensions. However, when the government of the day (and I use this phrase because in this respect they are all as bad as one another) start to dabble with short term decisions that adversely affect an individual's life time saving and retirement planning, then I start to get very uneasy.
So, I guess that my underlying concern in my tongue in cheek initial post is one of trust, and in particular trust of government. Sadly, I no longer trust government to do the right thing morally. IMHO greed and selfishness has gripped our green and pleasant land like never before, and the get rich quick and celebrity culture is driving this inexorably towards a two tier society of the haves and have nots. During and post the financial crisis the rich have got richer and the poor have got poorer, and the government of the day have done little if anything to address this; some would say they have exacerbated it to the detriment of cohesive society.
Noting Andy's (Brum Rum) "Comrades" comment, I'm not trying to incite revolution or drive a socialist or communist agenda, I just feel we need to see more fairness and morally acceptable decision making at the higher political levels. Only then will people start to feel comfortable with and confident in government decisions, and not sceptical that they are not made for purely political or indeed personal gain.
When I look at companies that have closed down their pension schemes I feel really sorry for those, who may have contributed for 30-40 years, having their life savings and retirement plans shattered at a time in their lives when they can do nothing about it, through no fault of their own. Those individuals deserve protection for their contributions from the government of the day, but it is the recent government changes that have for the most part allowed the pension schemes to become an untenable burden on the companies. Pension holidays (a Conservative plan) to allow companies to stop contributions when funds were in rude health in the good times only allowed funds to become seriously underfunded in the "dot com crash" and financial crisis. Taxing pension dividends (a Labour plan) to drag billions into the treasury coffers for their redistribution agenda, again stripping pension schemes of the potential to recover and ride out the bad times through the financial crash. If you look at these political decisions, and the companies themselves shutting down schemes to grow their companies, grow their profits, grow shareholder value and of course grow director level salaries and bonuses, they are all decisions derived from greed.
The provision of private pension arrangements through pension plans and annuity schemes suffers equally or even worse from the greed of the financial institutions that provide them. Pathetic fund growth returns combined with high commission and fund management fees mean that investors are struggling to get anywhere near the promised retirement income. Again, greed on behalf of those "trusted" with retirement savings.
We are today bombarded with stories in the media about the baby boomer demographic time bomb, too many people in or approaching old age with insufficient tax revenues from the workforce to pay for the healthcare needs. Well "No sh*t Sherlock"... It's not as if this has dropped on us suddenly is it? We've all been around for a year or two now, they even made a Trivial Pursuit Baby Boomer edition in the 70's. But, the good old government of the day for the past 30+ years has been focused on the short term policies that might get them re elected next time round, instead of looking to the best interests of the country in the long term.
Nonetheless, if you really trusted the government of the day you'd be quite happy that the House of Lords debate on the Assisted Dying Bill was well intentioned and not a slippery slope underpinned by greed to mitigate future care costs... wouldn't you?
On the up side, post implementation and of course after the first revision to allow people to select the date they wished to "pass over" (don't you just hate that uphanism?), just imagine what sort of annuity returns you could get on your pension for a defined life period post retirement
Anyway, enough depression already, time to get out in the Mog for a run and nice lunch in the sunshine. Bugger... It's raining and there's thunder in the air
