I'm not posting about efficiency, I'm posting about what people would, actually, on average, do, and how good that would be for them. You know, random people in the park, not utilitarians.
I remember seeing one of Aubrey the Grey presentations, and he said something like:
It is very simple, look.
Shows a picture similar of young women playing volleyball.
Shows another picture of old women sitting on a bench next to them
I'm really glad your grandpa has all that energy. My grandma used to walk 10 kilometers a day when she was 80, I couldn't catch up. But let's face it the way Aubrey faces it. It is not that 95% of elders are boring and don't want to go do what our ancestors did. It is just that they can't. They are not able to. It is painful, or impossible, or really hard, or socially frowned upon. I don't think older people spend more on food and wine because with experience people realize that the best things in life are food and drinks. I think they do it because there is nothing left for them to use their money on. It is a cruel world, and Woody Allen makes a good case for it: My next Life
Random people in the park are affected by utility theory whether or not they use it.
I know I said I'd be gone... but this was just a comment originally, and I noticed it may actually be relevant.
Elharo said in Munchkin Ideas:
I'm interested in the following:
Why should people invest in retirement? Or, instead, why should someone invest as much as most do in retirement.
Few facts that make it a boggling question for me:
You are 10% to 20% likely to die before you enjoy even your first retirement year.
People adjust much more to harsh economical conditions than they believe they would. They remain happy, as many studies by Seligman and others show.
People who retire are only happier as retirees if they retired by choice (I lost the paper, sorry).
Most people here live in rich countries - darn, hate to be the exception! - , and their state would happily provide them with at least the maximal retirement plan legal in my country (aprox 2000 dollars/month). And surely would provide them with double the minimal (about 200/month) if they needed.
If you have descendants, they may support you in case you are still alive, and if you are not rich enough to keep a house, you have a good excuse to be in company of loved ones (you have nowhere else to go).
Last, but not least: That person is not even you that much anyway.
Given all that, I have no clue what the whole fuss about retirement plans, and being 60% of a rich old person with a crappy body is all about, specially if you are in the grave.
I mean, in the cryopreservation chamber, of course.
Edit: A related question not worth its own post, but maybe worth discussing, is Should inheritance "jump" a generation. Everyone inheriting from grandparents, instead of parents? Just the abstract ethical question. Regardless of implementation procedure.