Great work, science: you've made old people live longer. You've successfully extended the most unhappy years of our lives. And the financial sector has done its part by vaporizing all of your money, by gambling. The result? There is no such thing as "inheritance" any more.

Baby boomers will be so very happy to hear that their parents are not passing away any time soon! From the WSJ:

Thanks to medical gains, a 65-year-old man has a 60% chance of living to age 80 and a 40% chance of reaching 85. For women, the odds are 71% and 53%, respectively. All of this has made the 85-and-over age bracket the fastest-growing segment of the population. In an era of low interest rates, volatile financial markets, and rising costs for health and long-term care, finding money to cover those years isn't always easy.

Pish posh. Any adult child would happily sacrifice not only their entire inheritance but also a great portion of their own accumulated life savings in order to pay for the intense medical care and cost of living expenses necessary to keep their decrepit parents alive, if you can call their empty, drool-flecked hours spent gazing into a television set waiting for death's sweet release "alive." Science, you keep extending the life expectancy up into triple digits. And Wall Street, you keep on eroding Americans' hard-earned retirement savings by blowing it on risky and ill-advised schemes.

Together, we'll beat this "inheritance" thing once and for all.

[WSJ. Photo: Ginny and John/ Flickr]