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It's not care, it's pawning them off, it's the opposite of care. Read Bullshit Jobs. An easy fix for countries with socialized healthcare would be to get rid o

It's not care, it's pawning them off, it's the opposite of care. Read Bullshit Jobs. An easy fix for countries with socialized healthcare would be to get rid of bureaucrats and hire front line workers that actually contribute something. Programs like this are the end-state of bureaucrat-run societies, where nobody who actually does any useful work is left. The point of caring for someone is caring, through real interaction. It's one thing, if horrible, to force people to interact with a voice-menu system when they call in somewhere. This is like a nightmare version of that. The fact that people seem to now think a chatbot that strings word patterns together is sentient will only make this worse, as the ignorant (just saw a sibling comment) will believe that "AI" will fix the problem, instead of actual personal interaction.

ragebol 4y ago
> Read Bullshit Jobs Read my comment again > hire front line workers What if you already got rid of the bureaucrats, hired everyone you can and still don't have enough people? Pay more? Sure, but that also has limits in both the amount of people you can pay and the money running out. Let those robot distribute fresh clothes and collect laundry, stock the fridges, clean the bathroom, all those menial tasks that allow people to have a decent life. Clear up the time from humans to actually interact with people. I don't like the prospect of needing someone to wipe my ass when I'm old, I'd feel ashamed. Maybe not when a robot does it. Not sure about that yet, I hope that day is far far away.
rocket_surgeron 4y ago
By 2055, Japan's population is projected to fall to 90 million, with (medium fertility/medium mortality): 8 million being children aged 0-14 46 million being "working aged" 15-64 36 million being 65 or older Population Projections for Japan: 2006-2055 Outline of Results, Methods, and Assumptions (PDF) https://www.ipss.go.jp/webj-ad/WebJournal.files/population/2008_4/05population.pdf https://www.ipss.go.jp/webj-ad/WebJournal.files/population/2... Let's ignore the assertion that 15 and 16 year olds are "working aged" no matter how you allocate resources 46 million workers cannot support 36 million retirees. Today there are around 3 million healthcare workers in Japan out of a working aged population of 80 million. In 30 years the number of retirees will be the same but the working aged population will roughly halve. This is just people working in hospitals, in-home care specialists are not counted. Nor are bureaucrats, only workers in 24 categories of direct-support healthcare fields are counted. Human Resources for Health Country Profiles: Japan (PDF) https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstreams/1147882/retrieve https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstreams/1147882/retrieve There are already critical shortages of healthcare workers and in 30 years the demand will be the just about the same (most healthcare resources are consumed by the elderly) but the labor pool will be smaller. If there were 0 bureaucrats there still wouldn't be enough people. Many European nations face the same demographic challenges that Japan does, to a very slightly less severe degree. Robots are one solution.
- SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
  > Japan's population .. Robots are one solution. FYI, the last episode of the "Tech Won't save us" podcast focuses on robots for elder care in Japan. Entitled "Robots Aren’t the Solution to Elder Care w/ James Wright" https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/robots-arent-the-solution-to-elder-care-w-james-wright/id1507621076?i=1000604448771 https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/robots-arent-the-solut... Related to his recent book on the subject: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63199878-robots-won-t-save-japan https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63199878-robots-won-t-sa...
- version_five 4y ago
  If there were 0 bureaucrats there still wouldn't be enough people Whether or not that's true, making the denial of basic human interaction the front line of creating "efficiency" is not the place to start. Not only is it dehumanizing, it encourages all of the wrong kind of behaviors, particularly administrative bloat, and ignores the reason we have social programs in the first place. If we've collectively decided we want to care for a group, we have to actually do it, not pay administrators to pretend it's being done.
  - hypertele-Xii 4y ago
    Like your computer is pretending you're submitting a comment, rather than actually coming to my house to explain your point of view?

ragebol 4y ago

> Read Bullshit Jobs Read my comment again > hire front line workers What if you already got rid of the bureaucrats, hired everyone you can and still don't have enough people? Pay more? Sure, but that also has limits in both the amount of people you can pay and the money running out. Let those robot distribute fresh clothes and collect laundry, stock the fridges, clean the bathroom, all those menial tasks that allow people to have a decent life. Clear up the time from humans to actually interact with people. I don't like the prospect of needing someone to wipe my ass when I'm old, I'd feel ashamed. Maybe not when a robot does it. Not sure about that yet, I hope that day is far far away.

rocket_surgeron 4y ago

By 2055, Japan's population is projected to fall to 90 million, with (medium fertility/medium mortality): 8 million being children aged 0-14 46 million being "working aged" 15-64 36 million being 65 or older Population Projections for Japan: 2006-2055 Outline of Results, Methods, and Assumptions (PDF) https://www.ipss.go.jp/webj-ad/WebJournal.files/population/2008_4/05population.pdf https://www.ipss.go.jp/webj-ad/WebJournal.files/population/2... Let's ignore the assertion that 15 and 16 year olds are "working aged" no matter how you allocate resources 46 million workers cannot support 36 million retirees. Today there are around 3 million healthcare workers in Japan out of a working aged population of 80 million. In 30 years the number of retirees will be the same but the working aged population will roughly halve. This is just people working in hospitals, in-home care specialists are not counted. Nor are bureaucrats, only workers in 24 categories of direct-support healthcare fields are counted. Human Resources for Health Country Profiles: Japan (PDF) https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstreams/1147882/retrieve https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstreams/1147882/retrieve There are already critical shortages of healthcare workers and in 30 years the demand will be the just about the same (most healthcare resources are consumed by the elderly) but the labor pool will be smaller. If there were 0 bureaucrats there still wouldn't be enough people. Many European nations face the same demographic challenges that Japan does, to a very slightly less severe degree. Robots are one solution.

SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
> Japan's population .. Robots are one solution. FYI, the last episode of the "Tech Won't save us" podcast focuses on robots for elder care in Japan. Entitled "Robots Aren’t the Solution to Elder Care w/ James Wright" https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/robots-arent-the-solution-to-elder-care-w-james-wright/id1507621076?i=1000604448771 https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/robots-arent-the-solut... Related to his recent book on the subject: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63199878-robots-won-t-save-japan https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63199878-robots-won-t-sa...
version_five 4y ago
If there were 0 bureaucrats there still wouldn't be enough people Whether or not that's true, making the denial of basic human interaction the front line of creating "efficiency" is not the place to start. Not only is it dehumanizing, it encourages all of the wrong kind of behaviors, particularly administrative bloat, and ignores the reason we have social programs in the first place. If we've collectively decided we want to care for a group, we have to actually do it, not pay administrators to pretend it's being done.
- hypertele-Xii 4y ago
  Like your computer is pretending you're submitting a comment, rather than actually coming to my house to explain your point of view?