[quote=temeculaguy]
This might sound crazy but all these nanny state laws are going to drive up costs for social security, medicare and other retirement expenses that workers subsidize. There’s no argument that they work, but the costs of people living longer are going to be our greatest challenges in the future. I shouldn’t say this as a man in striking distance of his 50th birthday but the system benefits from shorter lifespans. Youth is finite, the amount of years the young are a drain on the economy is fairly constant. Death keeps moving further out to the point that working life is nearing parity with retirement life. That is going to be a problem. Mark my words, you know I’ll bump and quote this prediction in 20 years.[/quote]
This is a well known tendency and a big issue for the UK NHS, where it was found that those who follow a healthy lifestyle generate, on average, $417,000 in healthcare costs over the course of their lifetimes, whereas smokers and obese people cost $371,000 and $326,000 respectively (in 2008 dollars): http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.9748884.html?_r=2
