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this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
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Why a cure for ageing would benefit everyone and not solely the ultra wealthy
If you put aside ethical and humanitarian reasons for making a cure for ageing widely available, there is still economic considerations, i.e. if you are a government you will be presented with a choice between:
Do I pay to treat people for ageing, even though the treatment might initially be expensive, or do I let them age without intervention?
The former option might actually be significantly cheaper because people in an advanced state of ageing cost more money. They have more diseases, since many diseases are age related such as dementia, cancer and cardiac disease, and need more healthcare and also can't work anymore.
If instead, the government pays for rejuvenation treatment they save on all the other healthcare costs and their people don't have to stop being productive.
So perhaps in the future when a cure for ageing is actually developed it will be made available for everyone rich and poor alike
Let me start by saying that I haven't read the article or the study, but I would be very suspicious that this could stop, slow, delay or reverse cancer. In fact, I would guess that it would actually cause more cancer. I hope I'm wrong.
We would also have to consider the impact of people living longer would have on the environment. People will still be having kids, and if you were going to live longer you might want to have many more kids while you're young. Our rock is going to get pretty crowded really fast if people stop dying of old age.
Then there's the point about people still being 'productive' to society. Honestly, if I'm going to live longer, I don't want it to be so I can continue to be productive. I don't like being productive as it is. I'd prefer that humanity focus first on fixing our economy before trying to extend our lives.
Despite appearances, I'm not trying to argue with you for the sake of argument, but more just putting other ideas out there to consider. I do hope your vision is right, and this will be something available to everyone and helps to make our final years more pleasant.