As IF Times

link New drug being developed using compound found in red wine could help humans live until they are 150 | Mail Online.

On the one hand, this alleged miracle compound is found in red wine, so it’s not a hardship to take unlike a dose of Buckley’s mixture.  In fact, if this story is true, there’s a good chance many of my friends are well on their way to a prolonged life based solely on their normal wine consumption.  On the other hand, why would anyone want to live to be 150?  Unless your body is capable of doing anything beyond clicking the TV controller by then, what’s the point of being 150?

Of course, I can see corporations wanting to cash in on the longer life expectancies by pushing the same old vanity stuff on older consumers.  Face creams and face lifts will be big business.  They can declare that 120 is the new 90 by  showing ads depicting 100 year olds climbing hiking trails with their walkers.  Think about the type of Viagra commercials that will run.  Hugh Hefner will be dating 23 year olds…..again.  At the other end of the consumer market,  an announcement that Depends are 20 percent off at Costco will cause stampedes.

There are other more pragmatic consequences as well.  How do people sustain themselves financially since most target 65 as a retirement age?  You’d have to accumulate a lot of money to live another lifetime with whatever you’ve managed to save.  If people live longer, then perhaps people will have to work longer too.  If you think service is slow now at government offices, wait until you are being served by a  clerk pushing a hundred.

Nobody wants to die prematurely, but in nature, all things have an expiry date.  Things just naturally wear out and all warranties end.  Just because science enables amazing feats of longevity, should that capability be exercised?   Recently, there was an article in which some scientists claimed to be able to revive an extinct species. Why? Presumably, it went extinct for a reason.  People should take it as a matter of fate that when a species fails to survive, there is likely a darn good reason why that happened.  Usually, it boils down to two things.  The species either ran out of things to eat, or itself was so good to eat, that other species finished them off.  Either way, it seems to be Nature’s way of purging the herd.  Even if it were possible to resurrect a Tyrannosaurus Rex, of what use is that?  Then there’s that whole matter of  the time/space continuum being upset or something to that effect.

There are those that believe that life and death both deserve to run their course with a certain sense of dignity and I happen to be one of them.  We are opening up a huge barrel of unforeseen consequences by artificially extending the natural path of life.   We’ll see see bald, wrinkly men who will sport pony tails in order to capture their coolness.  Tattoos that seemed like a good idea during the impetuousness of youth will look like blobs of amorphous mold on leathery skin.   These are things that once seen cannot be unseen.  Let’s spare everyone.

link Davos elites to seek reforms of outdated capitalism.

An interesting postulate, if only there were some evidence of it.  While it’s popular for the socialist crowd to bemoan the structural inequities of the capitalist system, in fact, there hasn’t truly been a capitalist system in place in any nation for many generations.  Certainly not in Europe, where in most countries, the predominant train of governing regimes moved from historically entrenched monarchies,  directly to socialism with only the  briefest whistle-stop at the capitalist station.  What they consider capitalism in Europe is akin to equating Dominos to Italian food.

It was historically natural for people to whine and complain that the King or the Queen (as the case may have been), weren’t treating the peasants well.  Under monarchies, upward social mobility was pretty limited.  You were either born royal, or married into it.  Even having money wasn’t a guarantee of social mobility.  Therefore, the majority of the population lived at the favour of the ruling class, receiving whatever crumbs the rulers deigned to confer.  This same mentality carries over to present day wherein people whine and complain about those in charge, demanding more of this or less of that.

The model for America was rather different, at least in the beginning.  People who were tired of others telling them what they could or couldn’t do decided to start their own country, a meritocracy based nation free of the constraints of entrenched and corrupt governance.  The problems arose many many years later when, along with great wealth creation, came the disease of entitlement.  Instead of a healthy focus on creating wealth and prosperity, the malaise of an entitlement to wealth and prosperity mentality began to spread.

Which brings us to today.  According to reports, fully 40% of Americans pay no federal income tax.  According to http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html , over 70% of federal income taxes are paid by only the top 10 percentile of taxpayers.  Even worse, apparently there are 70 federal welfare programs in place now to address “poverty” in the U.S., according to The Heritage Foundation.  Hardly a true capitalist system.

Meanwhile in Europe, the ability to fund months of holidays for workers, retirement benefits starting at 50, social welfare to accommodate everyone who asks, is coming up against the harsh wall of reality.  States such as Greece, Portugal, Italy and on and on are unable to fund these entitlements.  Somehow, the blame is laid at the doorstep of capitalism, when in fact socialism is the disease that afflicts all nations.  It’s brilliant sleight of hand that those who benefited the most from crony capitalism, which is in fact socialism, are crying crocodile tears about the failure of capitalism.  This is the same logic as decrying the existence of laws since the jails are so full of people.  It is the same as refuting the idea of universal education because some people are still illiterate.

We don’t  know who these so called ‘elites’ in the Cristal and caviar crowd are and how they came to be spokesmen for anyone, but it’s a good idea to be skeptical when the ones trying to sell you on the evils of wealth are the ones that have the most of it.  Next, Hugh Hefner complaining about promiscuity.