He might not make his next birthday!

Asset tax it. Sorry. No edit button.

Salaries, sorry.

Thomas Picketty, Willets in his book 'The Pinch' and others are busy stoking intergenerational envy. It is all a scheme to deprive older people of their hard earned and tax paid assets and cash and it works by setting generations against each other, a totally immoral and despicable aim.

My view is that governments want to asset-tax this money away from the oldies who have saved it so they can spend it on their own salries, pensions and projects. There is no other way to get hold of it as older people need to live and they also want to will the majority of their cash and assets to their own families.

I have told my own children not to be fooled by this 'intergenerational envy' malarky as, if the government taxes or in any other way, extracts their dear father's and my own money, they will not see a penny of it. Whereas, if it's left in our hands we will save every penny we can and leave it intact to them.

Money is best left to families to distribute downwards as it will be left to children trained in prudence and morality who will spend it wisely and well. Inheritors are bequeathed wisdom, discipline and advice as well as money and many parents tie up cash so it it is spent on proper investments like housing and education, not blown on bling.

Milton Friedman's famous, 'Four kinds of Spending' comes into this argument.

“There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40% of our national income.”

Milton Friedman, in a Fox News interview in May 2004"

In this case, when children inherit their parents' money it becomes the first type of personal spending which is prudent. When governments asset tax ithey spend the money of others and it is spent in the least prudent manner.

So correct GrandMattie, and now the Welsh are bleating for Independence again too, and they voted the same as England! Maybe our democracy allows too many bandwagons??

grummpa - how are you going to get people to pay into a system where they will not be collecting when it is their turn? Older people are the ones who paid the taxes to lay the foundations for the services we enjoy.

Does the NHS actually claim the cost of treating Europeans? I don't think they do. In my experience, in Europe, you have to show your E111 or whatever first then you get treatment. Perhaps it is time for us to start claiming these fees. It is NOT xenophobia, just common economics and good house-keeping!
But I think grumppa is probably right. One shouldn't treat older people to death [forgive the pun], but rather keep them comfortable for as long as they have quality, not quantity of life.

There's been an increase in 'hate crime' since the result of the referendum, so far against mosques, Eastern Europeans and ethic minorities, by the usual ultra right thugs. But how long before a hate crime is committed against an elderly person, just because of all this hatred?

It's getting ever more likely.

Actually grumppa the Times ran an article on that very issue last week....it happens.

The same person also believed we'd no longer take part in the Eurovision Song Contest

I'll drink to that!

I was complaining about the football and was told that this would be the last time now we were no longer in Europe. The same person also believed we'd no longer take part in the Eurovision Song Contest.

It took me ages to convince them that we were still in the continent of Europe.

I heard someone on Jeremy Vine programme ask if they could still get pizza when we leave!!

The divide has always been there, but more of the old are living longer, and although parents are having fewer children there is far less infant mortality too. So there are more young in need of the space and resources taken up by the elderly.

A Swiftian solution: withdraw NHS care from all of us on borrowed time. Simples.

Not sure which party's manifesto this is likely to appear in.

I knew that this vote would cause problems, but i had no idea how many! young v/s old; north/south; town v/s city; Scotland v/s England [again]; Ulster v/s UK [again].... Eu v/s UK
it seems endless, and causes me great grief. the vote is over, the decision taken, everyone should grit their teeth and make the best of it. where is our Dunkirk spirit?

Spoiling them? just a thought.

I do so hate this divide that seems to be growing between young and old. OK, so it's always been there, but there used not to be such animosity. Some cultures respect their older citizens - many to the point of feeling honoured to be the ones to look after their elders. Where did we go so wrong?

I think it's fairly ( not very ) annoying that the younger generation are bleating on about Europe all of a sudden. Where were their voices in the campaign? I voted to stay by the way and not enjoying being tarred with some brush or other.

"Empty vessels ......".

Perhaps if more of them had voted rather than just moaning the result would have been different.

The regions where the biggest majority of older people voted Leave were also the regions where fewest young people bothered to vote

Maybe it's a bit of family joke that we don't understand so sounds wrong.

My mum was obsessed that she was going to die when she was seventy because the Bible says 'three score years and ten'. It's become a bit of a joke as she's reached 82 and is still going strong so we often tell her she's on borrowed time. Would sound horrible to anyone who didn't know the story behind it.

This seems to be the moan of the moment amongst the younger ones. They may have a point, but it wouldn't hurt them to express it in a more thoughtful way.

I think we should raise the voting age to about ten years older than the start of the school leaving age.