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Comment by eli_gottlieb | Hacker News Reader

Make an accounting for being Tired of Life, for lacking the finances for longer lifespans, for cognitive and physical decline... blah blah blah.

Young people always think we want to live longer. Somehow, our minds end up changing by the time we become old people.

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> Young people always think we want to live longer. Somehow, our minds end up changing by the time we become old people.

No they don't. Old people might say they wish they'd died younger, but their actions show otherwise.

You mean their actions like having a living will that says to let them die in some circumstances, or outright filing "right to die" lawsuits? Or their attempts at suicide, which come at a rate well above those of the general population?

Those actions?

If they truly wished that they'd died younger, then they'd already be dead.

Are you honestly claiming an unsuccessful suicide attempt is an example of wanting to live? That's getting near "revealed rational preferences" in its level of sheer bullshit.

Nice strawman.

But yes, if somebody makes a failed suicide attempt, and doesn't follow up on that, I'd say that they wish to live (except for those who are left physically incapacitated due to their attempt, obviously).

I'd say you're completely full of shit. Suicide is hard, and, contrary to the propaganda about it, takes a great deal more courage than, say, skydiving.

Look, I apologize for the curseword, but you have to admit, in suicide as in all other actions, there are a million things that come between people's real intentions and their realized actions.

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