#falling life expectancy

[eaglesnick]

Second-rate Britain 6

The UK’s official retirement age is one of the highest in the world. Despite having  the fifth largest economy on the planet, Britons are expected to work long into old age before they can draw on their state pension. I gave three reasons yesterday why the government had postponed its plans to raise the pension age from 66 to 68.

“One is fear of social unrest as seen in France. Second, there is an election in less than two years time and raising the pension age is a vote-loser. Third, and perhaps most worrying of all, is that life- expectancy in the UK is falling."

Yesterday I was foolishly optimistic that this delay would be for several years but today it was announced:

“The Government plans to have a further review within two years of the next Parliament to reconsider plans for the state pension age to rise to 68.”  (Express and Star: 30/03/23)

So, we might yet see a retirement age of 68 before the end of the decade.

But this is not the main point of today’s observations. A very good reason for NOT raising the pension age is that in the UK life expectancy is now falling, not rising.

“For the first time in 100 years, Britons are dying earlier. The UK now has the worst health trends in western Europe – and doctors and experts believe that the impact of austerity is a major factor.”  Guardian 23/06/19.

Tory government’s have repeatedly deprived public services of adequate funding, which in turn has led to a decline in the quality of these services – from worsening housing conditions to NHS staff shortages. The deliberate running down of the NHS has led to massive waiting lists and many patients have died before they can be treated. The last decade has quite literally seen Tory government policies killing people. And before anyone blames Covid for increased waiting lists (which it did), the date of the quote above is June 2019, six months BEFORE Covid struck.

Needless to say, the fall in life expectancy disproportionately affects the poor, which is maybe why Tory governments seem not to care. It is no coincidence that it was the rich who received tax breaks on their pensions in the last budget while the rest of us will soon be expected to work until we are 68. While the rich can squirrel away a bigger pension pot much earlier than before, we will have to labour until we are nearly into our seventies.

Government’s figures show that 

“…females born into the poorest areas are the worst affected. Between 2018 and 2020, healthy life expectancy at birth in the most deprived areas was 19.3 years less than in the least deprived areas between 2018 and 2020. For males, it was 18.6 years fewer.” (Nursing in Practice: 27/03/22)

Life expectancy In the UK only began to fall after 2010, the year the first Tory government came to power after the financial crash of 2008. There then followed a decade of austerity measures and cuts to public services. During this time:

“… while life expectancy rose in most places during the first decade of the millennium, from 2010 it began to decline in some places… life expectancy fell in some urban parts of Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool and Blackpool where life expectancy was below 70 for men and 75 for women… there was a 20-year gap in life expectancy between a woman living in Camden (95.4 years) versus a woman living in one area of Leeds (74.7 years). And for men, there was a 27-year gap in life expectancy between areas in Kensington and Chelsea (95.3 years) and parts of Blackpool (68.3 years)”  (BBC News: 13/10/21)

The next time the unelected multi-millionaire Sunak tells us he is putting our “needs before politics”, we might want to insist he puts our lives above the economic interests of his already rich friends.

[uncanny-tranny]

Amatonormativity has destroyed so many people's understanding and acceptance of themselves, and it's heartbreaking.

Yes, it is normal to be in your 20s, 30s, or older and not have lost your virginity, had a first kiss, or a partner. It is normal to say that you aren't ready for those things, too! It is normal if your life doesn't follow the "college graduate -> engagement -> buying a home -> 2.5 kids and a dog" trajectory that so many people have idealized.

So many people associate maturity with losing your virginity, or having a first kiss, or a serious relationship, and I think that's a dangerous association. Maturity isn't gained through those things, and you don't have to have those experiences to be considered "mature" or "grown." It is not a bad thing to go at your pace. Nobody else can live your life but you. If you end up having those experiences, that's great! But it should be done because you want to experience them, not because you feel "broken" and "immature" without them.

[horrorosier]

give me arrogant, selfish, egotistical james potter ! i want him to think the entire world revolves around him and that everyone owes him something ! i want to see his carefully put together image of superiority begin to crack and crumble when things don’t go his way ! i want james who has never heard the word ‘no’ in his life ! i want to see james potter walk all over people because his success is more important to him than others ! i want to see james get put in his place so hard by the one man that it ultimately changes the course of james’ life and james finally gets a fucking grip on reality and sees the world doesn’t revolve around him ! and that is because the entire world takes form in the body of regulus black !

[lover-of-mine]

"Buck is attached to this symbolism of couches being related to relationships, and that's not something that's actually going away anytime soon."

[hansoeii]

I'm very much not normal about loki and mobius right now

[gatekeeper-of-witchcraft]

correct me if I’m out of line bc I’m not a detransitioner, but I hate hate hate how common arguments against transition/“in defense of” detransitioners is “they can’t have kids!” or “they can’t breastfeed!”

why should mitigating harm always come down to what a woman can do for a potential child (or a man’s ability to father children)? why isn’t it enough to keep HER from harm? it’s just prioritizing women as broodmares all over again. why isn’t it enough to keep HER from chronic pain, heart and blood pressure issues, incontinence, necrosis, limited mobility and death?

[willekieker]

don't enable him please

bonus

don't worry about stanley he's fine

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

I’m convinced that people who hate Mabel have a) never watched the show and/or b) don’t have siblings. Because until they encountered Bill Cipher for the first time, there was nothing to suggest Dipper’s obsession with the journals was more important or valid than Mabel just wanted to have a normal summer with a whirlwind romance. And even after incident with the portal Dipper and Ford actively keep everything secret from Mabel and Stan so she has no idea of the stakes or what Bill is capable of. Add to that that her dreams of the future were all suddenly crumbling around her all at once, and it is perfectly reasonable if not expected that she would fall for an immortal chaos demon’s tricks.

Also, most of the stuff involving the journal that goes wrong is Dipper’s fault but he still pretends like he and Mabel are in it together. And those of you who are siblings know that Mabel takes it extremely well. Like if I had accidentally sold my body as a puppet to a demon and the only way I could ask my sibling for help was through a sock puppet, I would expect them to help, but only after they spent a good half hour laughing and making fun of me with the additional consequence would be that any time I ask them for a small favor in the future, they would remind me that they were the one to save me from my stupid mistake, so no, they won’t pass me the salt.

(Also, can we just take a moment to see the giant double standards when it comes to the romances that Dipper and Mabel’s have. When Mabel pursues a romantic people treat it as irrelevant and getting in the way of the plot even when it doesn’t. But when Dipper tries to win Wendy’s affection, people expect Mabel to drop everything, sacrifice her pet, mess with time travel to help set up a scenario which Dipper can win a carnival game as a flex.)

[chalkscrub]

the Official and Fully Articulated Chalk Sheet - already want to completely revamp it which is a hallmark of any ref sheet i deign to make

[phoenixcatch7]

In love with the idea of captain marvel being Billy's imaginary friend. Like, it'd be so easy. Early depictions had them as almost fully separate people sometimes, like one soul with two minds, rather than just two filters like we mostly see now.

But imagine a Billy down on his luck, hurt and hiding from police and criminals alike, daydreaming the hours away as children do, taking inspiration from all the superheroes rising to fame, making little stories to play out his dreams of saving the world with a generic action doll he found while dumpster diving once. Most of the paint's rubbed off.

Red's his favourite colour, his comfiest jumper is a bright ruby even after all the grime and washes. Gold, too, it's shiny and warmer than silver! A hero cape is a must, big and eye catching! And he can fly, of course, like superman, and in his daydreams, when he's sore and frustrated after a long day's grind, his superhero is smart enough and knows all the right words to get the bullies to stop without resorting to fighting.

His superhero fantasy is one he spends a lot of time on, the first one he goes for when struggling to sleep at night, and he can picture it so clearly. Captain marvel is big and bright and kind, strong enough to lift the boxes for the old lady up the road who's moving all by himself, fast enough to catch Jamie who fell out of the tree on Saturday and broke his leg and couldn't come to class for weeks. He appears at the entrance to alleys when Billy is cornered, he steps up behind to cover for him when he gets caught shoplifting, he sits at the bus stop with him when it's pouring rain and the right bus doesn't seem to be coming.

And then the wizard comes, or rather whisks him away, and like a magician from a fairytale breathes life into his imaginary friend until Billy feels thrice his size and a million times more invincible.

From then on, captain marvel is a real hero, just like Billy is a real boy, and as one they save the whole city, and then the whole world, and get cats down from trees and help Mrs Victoria move the last of her boxes and she gives them a pinch in the cheek and cookies for the road and sometimes it hurts but it's so much better than he imagined.

[fujii-draws]

I think there’s something extremely entertaining abt two kids who aren’t child prodigies, but infact;

-Constantly cheating death over and over again, even when they should’ve absolutely perished ages ago.

-Continue their streak through gaining the Grim Reaper as their father, who keeps cheating them out of death even more as atonement for trying to kill/harm them once himself.

<<< Simultaneously the luckiest and unluckiest god damn teens/young adults

[valfeathers]

(stumbles into a room covered in blood and sweat) i painted

[bugtoast]

So i was looking around tumblr, and i found @squidflavoredsoup 's posts and like??? y'all i didn't know i wasn't alone in having this weird triangular guy in my house!!

seriously though, what is he even doing here???? how'd he even get inside???? where did he come from, cotton-eye joe???

[slydiddledeedee]

they are so funny. to me.

[eeveekitti]

I will fall in love with you over and over again, I don’t care how, where, or when, no matter how long it’s been, you’re mine

[matcha-milkies]

How are things going with fanfiction, I hope it will be released soon:3

Considering I just blitzed through almost 3k words in the span of a few hours, I’d say it’s PRETTY safe to expect it within the next few days. I’m going to sit on it and then proofread it and if I still like it tomorrow I’ll probably post