Interesting comments (and language) in this Economist article

[westphalian]

In 20 years there will be twice as many over 85 year olds in care than present. I don’t think any bugger has the answer for that one

[Billhook]

On 01/09/2018 at 09:13, westphalian said:

In 20 years there will be twice as many over 85 year olds in care than present. I don’t think any bugger has the answer for that one

Great chance for history repeating itself

 

After World War One Germany on its knees due to severe reparations forced upon it by the allies

A generation of young Germans with no hope or money

We could well have a similar generation here in another 20 years with jobs taken up by machines or cheap immigrant labour, having to pay vast welfare taxes to keep the NHS going which costs will by now include home care for all us oldies.

Along comes a new young charismatic leader who brings hope and jobs.  But first we need to be rid of the people who are taking a lot from society without contributing anything.

Hitler started by killing the mentally handicapped albeit quietly inside asylums.  That went on to the very old and demented followed by the terminally ill.

All that having been accomplished with little disagreement he moved on to the next group.  Gypsies are not any use to society, let's do away with them, who else is taking from society and not giving. Oh yes the money lenders, the Jews, let's do away with them too.

 

You can see how a charismatic leader could start all this off again sometime in the future, especially given the surprising rise of antisemitism at the moment in certain places.

Luckily the current leaders are the opposite of charismatic 

[openspaceman]

5 minutes ago, Billhook said:

Luckily the current leaders are the opposite of charismatic 

Yes but that is what gives a religious bigot and warmonger the chance to usurp a party and change its politics to the right, look what happened in 1994.

[gdh]

Regarding not seeing any visible smoke from fires it's the same with our chip boiler, admittedly that is a lot more effective than a fire because of all the extra technology but you get about 5 minutes of dark smoke at start up then nothing when it's up to temperature. 

 

Obviously the concern isn't the visible signs but it helps woods image to have a clean burn.

[BowlandStoves]

You only have to look to the US to see that effect to a certain extent - Trump is not everyones cup of tea but those who like him would support him whatever he decided to do.

[Haironyourchest]

1 hour ago, BowlandStoves said:

You only have to look to the US to see that effect to a certain extent - Trump is not everyones cup of tea but those who like him would support him whatever he decided to do.

I doubt that's correct. Maybe a very small minority, but then a very small minority of Obama supporters would have supported him if he had gone full Stalin. There are radicals at both ends of the spectrum. So far Trump has only enforced existing law, and everything he has done has been within the remit of his office. If he, hypothetically, turned into a true dictator, his supporters would abandon him. Trump people are for liberty with a capital L, and voted for him because he promised to shrink the power of government over their lives, which he has done. 

[BowlandStoves]

He has also stepped beyond the traditional remit for a president - whether this is a good or bad thing is  debatable. Whatever happens nobody will ever forget Donald Trump lol

[Haironyourchest]

35 minutes ago, BowlandStoves said:

He has also stepped beyond the traditional remit for a president - whether this is a good or bad thing is  debatable. Whatever happens nobody will ever forget Donald Trump lol

That's for sure! But when you say "traditional remit"....well, that may or may not be true, POTUS is a long tradition. But tradition and legality are not the same. Has he gone beyond the legal remit? I don't think I so. If Trump does anything illegal, his many enemies both on the Dem side, in his own party, and the deep state will Immediatly pounce. 

Edited September 6, 2018 by Haironyourchest