Arbella Perkins Ewings blew out all 114 candles on her birthday cake on March 13 and quietly took part in the celebration that comes with being the third-oldest person in the world.

There was a proclamation from Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, speeches by friends and family, TV cameras and a roomful of well-wishers.

read more | digg story

As I read by this little blip from Digg, I knew I had to say something more than the tiny comment area warranted.  At a 114 I am sure this woman was imporant to her friends and family, but I want to know what she did to help society the last 30 years or more.  What did she contribute to the world?  Why are we celebrating, and more importantly why should we be?  Is living a long time reason enough to be happy?  Or does a person have to do something other than breath and use resources to be worth celebrating?

As we live longer and longer, the question because what is the point?  We retire in our mid sixties from a job, then live another twenty or thirty years to do what.  What do old people really contribute to our society once they retire.  Sure some of them provide childcare for their children and grandchildren so they can work or go to school, and that is a great help to the economy.  Some people work long past the age of retirement or get a job even after their official retirement.  However why should we get excited about those who don’t?  What benefit do people who sit around and just wait to die provide?

Should we allow people to keep living after they quit being useful?  Congress is in fact full of useless people, and by no means do I advocate killing them, so I can’t advocate euthanizing old people just because they quit contributing.  However, I do think that there comes a time as a society when we must start putting the financial burden of living just for the sake of living on the the person and their family if they wish to keep living.  Our planetary resources are limited so the smaller the population we have the better off the world is.  We need to start thinking about the reality of that or one day not many generations from now all these kids we have to make our life feel complete will be killing each other over food and water rather than oil and ideals…