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I don't think it is true for developing world. The cost of taking care of olders are low. Yes, they probably cannot afford the medicine to prolong the cancer pa

I don't think it is true for developing world. The cost of taking care of olders are low. Yes, they probably cannot afford the medicine to prolong the cancer patients for 6 months or 1 year, and maybe even other conditions, they are not worse off comparing to their previous generation. If you look from developed world of view, anything below the developed world standard is bad, but comparing to previous generations, they are not.

DrRobinson 6y ago
I might be misunderstanding what you're trying to say, do you mean that because the previous generation had it worse we shouldn't strive to improve things even more?
- powerapple 6y ago
  No, what I mean is looking at the world from your standard, you won't have patience for things to play out. We definitely should improve things, but also we need to have patience for people to catch up. You can definitely help, but help also needs understanding. For example, the problem you are looking at may not be something of high priority to people need help. To understand what people really need will require more than compassion.
  - DrRobinson 6y ago
    Okay thanks, I think I understand you better now! Helping people in developing countries and curing aging in not mutually exclusive the way I see it, they can be done in parallel. They also usually require very different skills and usually have different budgets for example. I don't want to take resources away from helping the poor but rather see more focus in the medical world towards aging/longevity. Rather than spending a lot of money on trying to cure (for example) Alzheimer's decease I'd like to see more of those resources spent on trying to solve aging, which seems to be the root cause of Alzheimer's (and many other deceases.) Does that make sense? Or maybe I misunderstood you again.
faluzure 6y ago
Taking care of older people is very expensive right now. The majority of health care costs are for end of life care in the developed world. Those costs are going to increase as the largest generation ever (the baby boomers) approaches the point in their lives where they need to access that care. The birth rate in the developed world is way below replacement, so unless we import workers through immigration, there will be fewer workers to take care of the previous generation.

DrRobinson 6y ago

I might be misunderstanding what you're trying to say, do you mean that because the previous generation had it worse we shouldn't strive to improve things even more?

powerapple 6y ago
No, what I mean is looking at the world from your standard, you won't have patience for things to play out. We definitely should improve things, but also we need to have patience for people to catch up. You can definitely help, but help also needs understanding. For example, the problem you are looking at may not be something of high priority to people need help. To understand what people really need will require more than compassion.
- DrRobinson 6y ago
  Okay thanks, I think I understand you better now! Helping people in developing countries and curing aging in not mutually exclusive the way I see it, they can be done in parallel. They also usually require very different skills and usually have different budgets for example. I don't want to take resources away from helping the poor but rather see more focus in the medical world towards aging/longevity. Rather than spending a lot of money on trying to cure (for example) Alzheimer's decease I'd like to see more of those resources spent on trying to solve aging, which seems to be the root cause of Alzheimer's (and many other deceases.) Does that make sense? Or maybe I misunderstood you again.

faluzure 6y ago

Taking care of older people is very expensive right now. The majority of health care costs are for end of life care in the developed world. Those costs are going to increase as the largest generation ever (the baby boomers) approaches the point in their lives where they need to access that care. The birth rate in the developed world is way below replacement, so unless we import workers through immigration, there will be fewer workers to take care of the previous generation.