this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
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Chapotraphouse
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The cynical conspiracy part of my brain suspects they are lowering avg life expectancy on purpose. They want a young, able-bodied population for extracting the value of labor. After a certain age, you just aren't "useful" to capitalism anymore.
Yes it's always been eugenics
deteriorating public health is a less-important externality of extracting profit from the imperial core, but reducing life expectancy doesn't result in extra able-bodied labor, it's making the whole labor pool less healthy
But those with no labor left to extract are a drain certainly. Capital goes to sustain those no longer contributing. If the effects of PFAS arent generally noticiable before the body begins to naturally deteriorate, there is no loss of labor
drain on whom? some capitalists get to extract rent, some medical expenses, some simply have them as customers. retirees provide large amounts of productive labor in childcare and through volunteering, which don't directly profit anyone but allows the capitalists smoother operations.
there is a specific current amongst like Tech billionaires who whine about 'birth rate crisis' which don't have much interest in elderly people (because their fingers aren't in those pots), but it's difficult to imagine them getting to unilaterally lower life expectancies instead of pushing for targeted culling of unworthy (poor/nonwhite) elderly people
We have entered the Culling phase of capitalism