What would you recommend for an alternative here? There are inevitably going to be seniors who don't have family available to help them, and who reach a point where they're unable to care for themselves. I can only think of four options at that point:
1) Hope there's a local charity that is willing to take care of them, has adequate funding to do so, and isn't abusive. If this is unregulated there's a high likelihood of abuse occurring, and if it is regulated then you have government involved, which appears to be something you'd oppose. There's also the issue of unequal access - if it's charitable then it's inherently not mandated, so it's nearly certain some people will not have any such charity in their area (see #3).
2) Somehow have private, non-charitable entities handle it? I've no idea how this would work, as any non-charity is pretty much by definition motivated by profit, and a profit motive plus caring for the elderly is certain to lead to abuse (perhaps not in all cases, but I'd expect it to be quite common).
3) Nothing / good luck, oldies.
4) Government intercession.

In this case, a safety net facilitated by the government strikes me as the best of the available options. The problems highlighted in the video seem likely to stem from insufficient oversight and planning. I'd wager that's due to lack of funding, as this is exactly the sort of program which would be seen as a low-risk target when budget cuts come around, at least from an electoral perspective. After all, if the people impacted by this are those who don't already have people in their life who care for and can advocate for them, and being put under guardianship removes their voting rights, then where's the harm to a politician in reducing the funding?

It seems to me that a well-funded guardianship program, with proper oversight in place, would have the best chance of minimizing the suffering of elderly individuals who can no longer care for themselves. I can understand the libertarian preference for minimal governmental interference in the lives of the public, but this strikes me as a case where that simply doesn't work. If you can think of a viable option #5, or can make a case for 1, 2, or 3 being legitimately more helpful than a well-run option #4 (which is clearly NOT what's discussed in the video), I'm absolutely open to considering it. At the same time, implementing #4 in a way which doesn't leave it vulnerable to budgetary volatility is also a not-insignificant challenge.

Damn, I'm procrastinating really well tonight. That was long.

If this was really a true look at procrastination, it would only exist of a title screen.

I worked at a company that had every other Friday off. It was pretty obvious we weren't less productive on those weeks. We just scheduled tighter.

I take pride in my work ethic and my productivity is always at the top of my team. Still, if you set me a deadline I meet the deadline. It's not that I procrastinate until then, it's just natural to prioritize work that way. However it works, you get as much work done in 32 hours. I've witnessed it.

It's a procrastination machine - it spends a lot of time faffing about achieving nothing in particular

1; £50-£100 may not be much to you, but there are countries where the population exist on around 40 pence a day, I'm sure they would consider it a lot of money.

2; You saying; " smashing it with a hammer is no different to most of the mindless procrastination they get used for anyway," is rather silly. A Non-sequitur.

3; It doesn't beat "languishing in a drawer." Money - albeit a small amount- can be made from old phones or, if you care, given to someone who can't afford one. That, incidentally, is the major point I was trying -unsuccessfully it seems - to make.

7 million views = about $7000 in youtube ad revenue. Sound investment I'd say!

Also that is actually a pretty old handset, probably only worth £50-100ish now at most.


Now if we're talking about the Congolese workers who mined the ore and the Chinese sweatshop staff that assembled it that's another matter, but then that goes for anyone who owns or has owned a "smartphone". How one chooses to use it irrelevant, smashing it with a hammer is no different to most of the mindless procrastination they get used for anyway.

It's a highly disposable industry and this beats just languishing in a drawer somewhere or being dropped down the toilet etc.

Don't say procrastinate say, , 'Undemandingly indiscriminate.'

Interesting stuff. He starts talking about resolving procrastination around the 22 minute mark.

Procrastination - The Musical has been added as a related post - related requested by ant.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Procrastination-The-Musical

*relatedto=http://videosift.com/video/Procrastination-The-Musical

Yes, you seem to finally get it. As I wrote but you misunderstood or intentionally ignored, legalization without regulation simply encourages the black market.
The point of legalization is that it fosters regulation. If there is no enforcement, that's the government's failing. Here in the USA, we have some legal brothels that are regulated fairly tightly, and as far as I can tell there's never once been a claim that they used slaves in either one. They would not do so because they would likely be caught and lose their money factory.
And I think you are completely wrong, this video directly accuses legal brothels of being the culprit. It starts off pretending to be a legal brothel, then has a sign that slaves end up "here" (in a legal brothel).
I think they missed the point by using legal brothels in Amsterdam as the setting for the video, they should have pretended to be a black market brothel elsewhere.

Thanks, Procrastination, for the backup. It is a normal problem here that people read or cherry pick one sentence out of context then rant against what they wish it said. Also a problem that people give links to "evidence" and jump to conclusions about it rather than stick to what it actually says. Because a story makes you feel a certain way about an issue, one should read carefully to be sure the facts actually support that feeling, as many writers are willing to obfuscate, fabricate, or outright lie to prove their point.

@Procrastinatron

I love that name by the way. Procrastination is my middle name!

As a female I of course deplore sexism in any form, but I do feel that a lot of it is perceived sexism and I can't be doing with anyone who takes political correctness to the extreme. Of course it exists and women need to fight against what can still be a man's world... but I truly believe that for the most part, men get it. Well I say get it... they are probably even more confused as to what is and isn't acceptable to think and say than ever before.

My son asked me the other day why women say that men don't understand them. He's 10. God knows where he's heard it, but it was a very amusing question and one that is difficult to respond to a young boy. I told him that essentially men and women work on very different emotions and while neither is wrong or right, that difference can be very confusing to guys because women are often driven by their emotions and men are often more logical in their approach.

I also told him that women find men just as hard to understand because they assume that guys don't get them because they don't care enough and that this isn't necessarily the case. We're just very different creatures. People are people, sometimes men are crap and sometimes women are crap, don't ever listen to "All women are/all men are..." He said, "Oh I understand." The poor kid lives with just me and his raging hormonal 14 year old sister, haha.

Interesting about Swedish women in your experience. Sounds like Assange is hiding out for very good reason. Wonder what that was all about, eh?

Wow, it feels different around here. Yes, I got you the charter membership so you could pretty the place up and you succeeded in doing so!!!! It looks awesome...I really love the colors you chose...AND I'm so glad you finally have an avatar picture...it was time to stop procrastinating and post one already. It suits you.

Glad your headache is gone. I only get them when I spend long periods of time staring at a computer screen or when I'm dehydrated. It wouldn't surprise me if staring at a computer screen is what gave you that headache since it seemed like you were on here all day.

I don't mind so much when the power goes out (as long as it doesn't last too long)...it's fun to have to use candles and find something to do that doesn't require electricity for a change. At least you have an iphone and a connection to the internet. You're not totally cut off!

Ok, I have to ask....I'm assuming FSM is internet slang for something, but I have no idea what...and I even googled it to try to figure it out....I got "flying spaghetti monster", "female seeking male", among other things. What does it mean?

Yeah, Bill, still getting your bit ideas from HuffPo?

My fave of all time. The write-up is pretty clever, too.