Help is not on the way.

I’m thinking about dying before I get old.

Yesterday was my father’s 90^th birthday. He comes from hearty stock. His parents lived well into their 80s and most of his siblings reached 90+.

This scares the shit out of me. I absolutely DO NOT want to live that long. And if you had any brains, you wouldn’t either.

By 2030, the U.S. will be in the middle of an enormous shortage of workers who can care for the elderly. The population of people in the typical prime caregiving ages of 45-64 is expected to grow by only 1% by 2030. But people 80+ will grow by 80%. I'm no math genius, but that seems worrisome.

AARP predicts that by 2030, there will be only four potential caregivers available for each person over 80. By 2050, the ratio will drop below 3 to 1. This is down from a high of 7 to 1 in 2010. Shit, I need 5 potential caregivers just to get me out of bed in the morning. This is potentially quite a bummer.

Apparently we’ll need more than 1.3 million new caregivers over the next decade to meet demand. Basically we’re screwed.

Face it kids, we’re not going to get the same care our parents got. Nobody’s coming when we press the call button. We're on our own.

This is particularly bad news for people like me afflicted with the longevity gene. I mean, what the hell am I supposed to do for the next 40 years? Wipe my own ass?