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Let elderly people 'hurry up and die', says Japanese minister
Let elderly people 'hurry up and die', says Japanese minister | World news | guardian.co.uk
"Hurry up and die" you "tube people" and those who "dodder around", the government can't afford to pay for you anymore! I've seen people point to Japan's HC system as an example for ours. Yet they have had to double taxes to pay for the elderly and are now hoping they hurry up and die because the old are a drain on the system.
Taro Aso, the finance minister, said on Monday that the elderly should be allowed to "hurry up and die" to relieve pressure on the state to pay for their medical care.
"Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. I would wake up feeling increasingly bad knowing that [treatment] was all being paid for by the government," he said during a meeting of the national council on social security reforms. "The problem won't be solved unless you let them hurry up and die."
Rising welfare costs, particularly for the elderly, were behind a decision last year to double consumption [sales] tax to 10% over the next three years, a move Aso's Liberal Democratic party supported.
To compound the insult, he referred to elderly patients who are no longer able to feed themselves as "tube people". The health and welfare ministry, he added, was "well aware that it costs several tens of millions of yen" a month to treat a single patient in the final stages of life.
"I see people aged 67 or 68 at class reunions who dodder around and are constantly going to the doctor," he said at a meeting of economists. "Why should I have to pay for people who just eat and drink and make no effort? I walk every day and do other things, but I'm paying more in taxes."
Let elderly people 'hurry up and die', says Japanese minister | World news | guardian.co.uk
"Hurry up and die" you "tube people" and those who "dodder around", the government can't afford to pay for you anymore! I've seen people point to Japan's HC system as an example for ours. Yet they have had to double taxes to pay for the elderly and are now hoping they hurry up and die because the old are a drain on the system.