Social Care

[sonyc 5,491]

https://unherd.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4a3053b52a708e8ba60bf45e9&id=26c6ee8735&e=e03e67d9b3

 

Different way of looking at end of life care offered in this piece.

 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by sonyc

[horsefly 4,287]

8 hours ago, Herman said:

Will care workers now get a pay rise to cover the tax increase? 

I take it that's a rhetorical question Herman? Watch and weep as all the extra money for social care gets swallowed up by the private companies hiking up fees for their services. Just another way to ensure tax payers money ends up in the hands of Tory supporters.

[horsefly 4,287]

The HMRC's government report on the the regressive NI social care tax couldn't be clearer:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/poll-tax-2-0-will-harm-jobs-and-families-treasury-s-own-experts-admit/ar-AAOlbcW?ocid=msedgntp

But Johnson's true interests couldn't be more clearly demonstrated seconds after he coerced his party into voting for his unfair tax on the poorest paid:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/revealed-pm-and-rishi-sunak-fled-the-commons-after-vote-for-event/ar-AAOle1X?ocid=msedgntp

Worth noting that these articles are published in the Telegraph and Mail.

[Yellow Fever 3,747]

On 09/09/2021 at 13:21, sonyc said:

https://unherd.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4a3053b52a708e8ba60bf45e9&id=26c6ee8735&e=e03e67d9b3

 

Different way of looking at end of life care offered in this piece.

 

 

 

Anybody whose actually had to visit loved ones in a 'mess' in hospital, had to make the most distressing of decisions of what's best I think fully understands the 'quality of life' question. To see once proud independent people reduced to mere shadows of themselves with little to no hope of any improvement barring a miracle and I think most of us realize that death then becomes a welcome release. Remember them with love as they were not as they became. I wouldn't wish that experience of me on my children. 

I despair of people who for whatever reason, often religious,  think they know what's best for 'other' people and forbid such things as assisted suicide.

[sonyc 5,491]

11 minutes ago, Yellow Fever said:

Anybody whose actually had to visit loved ones in a 'mess' in hospital, had to make the most distressing of decisions of what's best I think fully understands the 'quality of life' question. To see once proud independent people reduced to mere shadows of themselves with little to no hope of any improvement barring a miracle and I think most of us realize that death then becomes a welcome release. Remember them with love as they were not as they became. I wouldn't wish that experience of me on my children. 

I despair of people who for whatever reason, often religious,  think they know what's best for 'other' people and forbid such things as assisted suicide.

Yes. I've been there for sure. And been through it with my mum. I've witnessed it in others' families too. 

It's a powerful article and ultimately, and this sounds (literally) morbid to say, but death is the only really interesting metaphysical subject. We shy away often. Death is precisely about life and what it's for. Hence.....this being a very good piece (and even comes to the same conclusion... that in our politics and in society, we just equate stuff with 'more-ism'. Of course life is then cheapened).

 

Just have to live our best lives. Be kind, be curious, be as happy as we can. Do things and do them well. It's only the 'now' we have. I'm always just 'blown away' to use such a trite term, whenever I bring this to consciousness. Often I tend to forget (as we all can do) if I wander off into auto-pilot mode.

 

To lighten this a bit at the end of this post... I often laugh at those Billy Connolly words...asked about his preference for white bread or brown bread😅....he would choose white bread because the extra two weeks you get at the end might be when you're drooling and not even knowing what year it is....and not earlier in life aged 20 when you're sh4gging away.....

[BigFish 1,986]

On 07/09/2021 at 14:26, Rock The Boat said:

I also don't believe social care should be financed through higher NI payments. That is asking working people to finance those who are in the main doing quite well out of home ownership and generous pensions. And this is probably a good time to scrap NI completely as it is a tax on jobs. If we are re-organising income tax and NI, we can at the same time reorganise state pension contributions and social care contributions into a single digital wallet application and give people the flexibility of how they want to make contributions and how they want to take benefits so that you end up with a goal of allowing people to have more choice over how they manage their social benefits wallet instead of trying to apply a one-size fits all to everybody.

Bloody Hell @Rock The Boat in sensible post shocker. Not much I can disagree with in this one my friend, are you sure you don't want to reconsider 😉

[Rock The Boat 1,325]

7 hours ago, BigFish said:

Bloody Hell @Rock The Boat in sensible post shocker. Not much I can disagree with in this one my friend, are you sure you don't want to reconsider 😉

We all want the best for each other mate. just different ideas on which route to navigate.🍻

[TheGunnShow 5,932]

I think there will be a few other likely developments:

1. Increasingly, I doubt people will retire, or they will look to work in their old age. Our welfare and pension system was designed at a time when life expectancies were considerably shorter than they are now. They were also designed at a time when practically everyone followed the same nuclear family model. As I quip, the only reason I save in a pension fund is a back-up income stream when I am old, but I work in a profession where as long as my faculties work, I'm happy to keep working regardless of age as I'm only sat at a desk all day.

2. People are increasingly having fewer children. Much of this is because people are becoming more aware - children cost a lot of money and demand a lot of time, and the emergence of the likes of Orna Donath and Paul Dolan showing how children DON'T necessarily make you happy (Donath's research into regretting parenthood is ground-breaking, but also massively opens up the discussion, killing the old lie that "it's different when it's your own). The problem here is that, combined with number 1, fewer younger people are around to pay in the pot. The typical wailing is to complain at young people for amusingly enough, being responsible not to have kids they can't afford instead of demanding tax reform.

3. Mental health probably remains ignored or undervalued after a short period of awareness, in all likelihood.

4. A sensible approach to assisted suicide really has to come around. There is a slight improvement, but I'd go full Swiss here. The day we have our version of Dignitas will be a great leap forward.

Edited September 13, 2021 by TheGunnShow

[TheGunnShow 5,932]

On 12/09/2021 at 11:49, Yellow Fever said:

Anybody whose actually had to visit loved ones in a 'mess' in hospital, had to make the most distressing of decisions of what's best I think fully understands the 'quality of life' question. To see once proud independent people reduced to mere shadows of themselves with little to no hope of any improvement barring a miracle and I think most of us realize that death then becomes a welcome release. Remember them with love as they were not as they became. I wouldn't wish that experience of me on my children. 

I despair of people who for whatever reason, often religious,  think they know what's best for 'other' people and forbid such things as assisted suicide.

As someone who grew up with a mother who was disabled (and she was told never to have children as in all likelihood she wasn't going to be strong enough to withstand the stresses of pregnancy), this hit home.