# Should the Government Encourage early death 9via Unhealthy Lifestyles)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 4, 2007, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-government-encourage-early-death-9via-unhealthy-lifestyles/386700 "2007-01-04T16:46:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-government-encourage-early-death-9via-unhealthy-lifestyles/386700/21 "2007-01-06T15:47:12Z")
On Thursday a friend of mine told me a, probably apocryphal, tale about AIDS becoming a problem with elderly heterosexuals - due to Viagra. Hand out the blue pills. ---
**Author:** ![Aquila\_Be](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a698b9/32.png) [@Aquila\_Be](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquila_Be)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-government-encourage-early-death-9via-unhealthy-lifestyles/386700/22 "2007-01-07T08:45:27Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] —and a few thousand years ago, at 40, I’d be classed as an old man. [/QUOTE] Not really. It depends on the extent to which the infant mortality rate is factored in when calculating the “average” age of an ancient population. [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy) > [@](#): > > The low level of pre-modern life expectancy is distorted by the previous extremely high infant and childhood mortality. If a person did make it to the age of forty they had an average of another twenty years to live. Improvements in sanitation, public health, and nutrition have therefore mainly increased the numbers of people living beyond childhood, with less effect on overall average lifetimes. If you wandered around ancient Athens you’d find plenty of greybeards around (except after they had a plague, of course. very hard on the under fives and over sixties). ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-government-encourage-early-death-9via-unhealthy-lifestyles/386700/23 "2007-01-07T13:30:03Z")
I’ll be 67 on my next birthday so I guess I am one of the elderly the OP wants to dispose of. I think I’ll hang around as long as I can, so I can spend more time with my Darling Marcie. However, if the OP is truly concerned about the increasing elderly population, I encourage him to freely indulge in the life threatening habits mentioned, as well as several others of his own choosing. Russian Roulette, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-government-encourage-early-death-9via-unhealthy-lifestyles/386700/24 "2007-01-07T14:03:39Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Ten Monstrous Things Before Breakfast = Band Name! 😃 [/QUOTE] You’d need an awfully large band. No waaait, I saw 10,000 Maniacs on teevy one time, and no way were there 10,000 of them. Also, I misread **unhealthy lifestyles** as **unhealthy hairstyles** , and thought of that beehive do that grew poison spiders. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-government-encourage-early-death-9via-unhealthy-lifestyles/386700/25 "2007-01-07T14:14:17Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] I’ve GOT the solution! After people retire, we supply them with rich, fat-laden dinners (at government expense); we also provide free cigarettes, and free alcoholic drinks. The combination rapidly thins out the elderly population, whilst the tax revenue (alcohol, tobacco, etc.) replenishes the treasury! [/QUOTE] Excuse my ignorance of economics but how exactly do you plan to replenish the treasury with the profit from free tobacco and alcohol? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-government-encourage-early-death-9via-unhealthy-lifestyles/386700.md?page=1)