Here in the UK, a general election is looming. But then that's not news: it's been looming for nearly five years, since the last one. The date of May 7th has been known for ages and, given that all most politicians care about is being re-elected, their minds have been firmly focused for some time. In fact, so firmly focused that the government long ago gave up any pretense of doing anything useful and concentrated solely on saving their jobs. At our expense, of course.
In the (not so) old days, the timing of a general election (although in theory up to the monarch) was at the whim of the party in power but under pressure from coalition "partners" the Lib Dems, the Conservatives agreed to this fixed term business. OK, so the government no longer has the element of surprise in its electoral arsenal but the law of unintended consequences has kicked in and produced this so-called zombie government. But it occurred to me that this fixed term principle may be a good idea in other contexts; like fixing the end of your life.
Now this may sound a bit morbid to say the least but do open your mind to the advantages, which are many. Anyone who's got to that age where you need to start thinking about pensions and the like will know that the key variable which makes these decisions so tricky, is the date of your death. If you knew in advance when you were going to snuff it, the whole business of financial planing in one's later years would be so much easier.
Then there's this "bucket list" business. Many of us may want to go round the world, climb Everest, discover lost tribes in the Amazonian rain forest, etc., etc. but the problem is, when? Just how long does one have to cram in these things? If they're potentially life-threatening, you wouldn't want to do them too soon but if you knew your time was up the week after next, well a spot of wing-walking doesn't seem like such a bad idea. And this fits with the money angle too; bucket list stuff can be expensive - what a disaster if you blow all your savings now and then find you've got another thirty years to struggle by in poverty. There's no doubt about it - a fixed date of death would be a real boon to the grey haired adventurer and financial planner alike.
And what about the benefits to society as a whole? We're all living too long, so we're told. This puts a terrible strain on the health service and care homes. It ties up housing, which means higher housing prices for the youngsters and leads to the need to build more housing, which means less countryside, and so on and on. If we're all given a fixed termination date (kind of like having a leasehold life), many of these problems would fade away. Of course if you die before your given date, that's no problem and perhaps your descendants could enjoy some kind of government handout by way of thanks.
So there you have it; my radical proposal for solving almost all the problems in the developed world. Which political party will be the first to adopt it? And how about a slogan: "live today, die tomorrow - and we mean tomorrow."
