The Eskimos famously dealt with the old people problem by putting their elders out on the ice. it relieved the community of the burden of caring for them.
Well Bill, like you and your wife, my wife and I, as well as most of your readers are the demographic you lightly excoreated today. We are Boomers. We are a very large cohort. We grew up in the cold war period. We were children of the fifties and sixties. We were told to get educated, go to college, better yet go to graduate school, get a professional degree...just be better. Work hard and work long. Most of us did as directed. We procreated and took care of our families. We absorbed the cultural dictates and followed the rules including those that govern our pensions and social security; we did not make the rules. Yes, we have the money. Yes, there are more of us and no, I do not regret a moment of it. And yes, my children will benefit. So what?
Tom, "right on" !!! I was born in 1947 and grew up in a poor situation but followed orders and worked hard for what my wife and I have. God has allowed us to have good health and that's the most valuable asset any of us can have. If I make it to "99" like my dad I'll probably run out of money but that's ok. My daughter and grandchildren will enjoy what's left. "WE", all of us old farts who worked for what we have should not feel bad for what we have. "WE" followed the game plan put before us.
The ponzi scheme is going to be very harsh on those behind us. They can thank FDR for the ponzi scheme.
Mr. Langdon, Correct, your children will benefit. And so will (and are) tens of millions of younger folk who get help along the way from their parents and grandparents even BEFORE the oldsters die. Money cycles through an economic system, and Bill should know this. But lately, I don't know what Bill, at 77, knows---or remembers. He writes essays like this about greedy baby boomers as if he doesn't even realize that tens of billions of dollars are passed from old to young while the old are still living. (In fact, it might be hundreds of billions.) And it's not just monetary. There is housing, food, transportation, job/health care assistance, etc. etc. that seniors help young folks with. Does Bill ever help his children or grandchildren? When they turned 18, he just told them to sink or swim? Maybe, but I doubt it.
Now is SS a great system? Of course not. But when one analyzes something, it's best not to generalize as Bill has done here with this essay.
Read your essay today, Bill, and found I am the subject of it. I am 76, worked all my life, paid into social security begrudgingly, along with all the other taxes that the USG and associated states, counties, cities, school systems, utilities, etc. demanded. I am one of the fortunate ones. I was able to start a business, grow it and then sell it such that I banked a fair amount of money. I am not of your financial level by any means, but I don’t need to rely solely on social security to survive. Now don’t get me wrong. If I lose social security it will adversely affect my lifestyle, but I won’t be shopping in the Alpo aisle for dinner. Now guys like you probably don’t give a hoot about social security, and in fact should surrender their monthly paycheck back to the USG just to help slow its demise. You do that don’t you, Bill?
Now, you discuss how these old timers are contributing to the social security demise, both by living long enough to get more out of it than they deserve and by depriving the younger generations with opportunities for advancement. What a load of CRAP, Bill. We paid our social security, begrudgingly or not, because we were ordered to and because we were promised that we’d get it back as a return on our investment. Now the USG needs [wants] to renig on the deal and you think, or at least hint at, that is a good deal. How much of your worth was gotten by your business partners renigging on deals you made?
Second, you discuss how old timers are working too long! More CRAP, Bill. Some of those old timers are still working because they have to since even with their social security they don’t have sufficient means to live at an acceptable level. Some old timers went back to work because they are bored with retirement [“Welcome to Wal-Mart”]. Lots of career movement there! So, to wrap up this rant, Bill, I say your argument in support of your essay fail. Once again, I end with the recurring complaint: Give us financial advice and skip the political bitching and social sermonizing.
Bill has for so long been describing what was happening. Usually humorously but made his points clearly. Many of us elders (now) appreciated the info, chuckled and subtracted the potential end of social security funds from the year we were reading his essay on our fingers and toes and flippantly dismissed his points. Especially the government. Bill, et al, tried valiantly. Now the time is here. We don’t even need a whole handful of fingers but some of us are critically demanding forever compensation. Bill’s tongue in cheek style may be a bit bitter as it mixes with an awful lot of ‘I tried’ when perhaps he wants to say ‘I told you so’.
Great post Dan, I agree. Especially with Bonners political bitching and social sermonizing. I'm so sick of it this is the essay I have read in over a year. Not much has changed.
Thanks Bill. You really cut through the chaff in this one and I agree entirely. The whole awful mess is obviously unsustainable... in the words of Alex Haley — 'Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you.' Loved the separate wings of the same buzzard comment.
I fully agree with you. The ol' man is - once again - talking about reality. Why is it so hard for so many to see what is right in front of them. Bill isn't suggesting "we" go with the Eskimos in solving the wealth issue. What is in front of America is going to be horrific. The US$ may be the best fiat currency in the glue factory but it will still get crushed. Most of us peons on living paycheck to paycheck and including social security or retirement accounts. As inflation continues, how does this play out for us minions? Nothing to see here, Folks, move along.......but don't blame ol' Bill for the failure to see reality and what lies ahead.
I am with you, Mr. LSO. This is going to be horrific. I pray that I am wrong, but I fear that I am not. I hope to be okay with my geographic location, but you never know. God bless us all, my friend.
Bill, I have enjoyed your writings for at least 25 years. Don't always agree but I know you arn't looking for a pat on the back. I respect what you have accomplished with your business and the multiple properties around the world, a big accomplishment. NO, you don't need your S.S. check but I bet you put it in the back for a rainy day fund and so you should, you paid your taxes so you deserve it. Someday the under 50 crowd may wake up to the scam and VOTE for a big change, I hope so, but don't hold your breath. IN the meantime we'll keep paying for all the illegals who didn't pay a DAMN cent into the fund!
I'm angry about the misspent money; money that was collected for future SS benefits and was improperly spent by the congress. Remember Gore's SS lock box; political theater. I'll be 90 in July and have been collecting SS since age 65. That's 25 years, but I paid into SS for 45 years. I was drafted, during my junior semester., and spent 4 years in the USAF. I was being paid about $60.00/month as an A1C including overseas and hazardous pay, but I paid SS taxes. I paid the maximum SS tax until I was about 70; I'm still paying SS taxes. I calculated that if I took my SS tax and invested it at 5%, I would have had a multiple of the income paid to me by SS. But I wasn't given that choice. Teachers were, pastors were, RR unions were, and they all made out better than I did. So, don't lecture me about taking SS benefits.
The Libertarian worldview on display. Murder them while they are in the womb and contribute to the low birth rates and when their "monetary contribution" to society lessens get rid of them. That sixth commandment that forbids murder you know that its just optional (just like the other nine).
In regards to the quote from the Financial Times I believe its almost always been the case that people in their 50's and older are doing better from a financial stand point than they were in their 20's. Let's see if its not the same for our current group of twenty-year old's in another 25 years.
Like others on this comment string, I am in my mid seventies. I have been working since I was 14, doing lawns, as a caddy, a lifeguard, a waiter, and in steel mills, factories and refineries, as a writer, and for big oil. I was edged out at 56 when told I’d have to move 1000 miles to keep the job I had, and I chose to start a new career path instead. My parents retired well and gave me a model for adulthood, to save money, invest regularly, not be frivolous with savings, and look forward to some ease.
I didn’t resent their success and ease when they traveled widely while I had a big mortgage (remember 20% mortgages in the 80’s?) and kids who wanted a car and college.
Now my children, in their mid 40’s, are reasonably successful too.
My financial guy, when I hit 62/3, told me to take the SS $, and invest it cause I could do better than the admin. He was right.
I admire your abilities to make a “ton” of money, but I’m a bit dismayed at your criticisms. Few of us write newsletters from Ireland or Argentina on our own perspicacity then suggest to readers that they are failing general society on so many levels , but I do not recall being consulted on the growth of the Great Society or the multi fold expansion of SS benefits.
I suggested to my mother, when she called out the plight of poor people, that she should write a monthly check from her SS $ to some deserving family. She too declined.
I have contemplated the ice floe, but also the nation’s trillions spent/wasted for the betterment of other countries’ poor and unwashed, on grossly enlarged social programs, and a wacky tax system.
Solutions (all unpopular) could be:
—Caps on income and net worth
—high across the board income taxes without deductions
—ditto flat tax on all
—Canadian style MAID with bonuses when you hit 65
—exiling corrupt politicians without their funds, which instead become revenue
—better financial knowledge so young folks can do what you are doing;
—and so on.
Finally remember that when YOU hit 65 or 70, the Gen Z’s and A’s will have similar complaints about the Millennials who have outlived their usefulness, made “too much” money and aren’t sharing it. Maybe we need more planets to colonize.
I recall an episode of Sanford and Son in which Fred, thinking he was dying, lamented that he felt like an old Eskimo left out on a block of ice, to which his sister-in-law, Esther, remarked, "You old heathen, where you're going you gonna wish you had a big block of ice."
I am 76, the age at which most men, statistically, shuffle of this mortal coil. I have tried to age gracefully but my body is less cooperative in that endeavor on a regular basis. Having never married and without children I am now the last surviving member of my immediate family and my few friends have steadily died off. Now the looming question becomes how to exit this life gracefully...
My strategy to exit gracefully is to keep exercising and eating well. So far it's working, 8 1/2 years paying for Medicare Parts B and I've never had to use it. (Guess I can say I'm helping to save the Medicare system). In fact, seeing so many people being diagnosed with some form of dementia, I've already decided that if it happens to me I'm going to step up the exercise to the point I either drop dead exercising or all that blood flowing in my brain results in a miraculous cure.
I am not interested in extending my life to the point that I spend my last months sitting in a wheelchair, staring at a blank wall. I am looking for a balance between quality of life and longevity...
The taxable maximum for SS Tax is $184500. Just raise this limit and high wage earners, and their employers, would pay more SS Tax. Simple. (currently, this is a 'regressive tax.') TRW
Bill, you're perpetuating a debunked stereotype. No, the Inuit didn't put the old folks out to die on the ice as a matter of course Occasionally, some oldies would volunteer to be abandoned. But mostly, as ChatGPT sez:
"A more accurate statement would be: in rare situations of extreme starvation, some Arctic communities may have accepted voluntary elder sacrifice or abandonment, but the common stereotype that Inuit routinely sent their elderly out on the ice to die is not supported by the historical evidence... In fact, elders were often highly valued because they held critical knowledge about hunting, weather, navigation, medicine, and survival."
Alas, the now culture places little value on the accumulated life wisdom of seniors like you and myself. It doesn't distill into 280 characters. Too bad no one is listening....
I along with the rest of my generation inherited Social Security from the FDR administration and
Medicare from the LBJ administration. FDR was implemented before I was born and Medicare before I could vote. Both are involuntary policies that were forced upon the American citizen. In a voluntary contractual capitalistic society old age poverty insurance and old age medical insurance would be up to the individual as a voluntary private decision. Old age does not sneak up mysteriously on anybody. It is not the responsibility of the responsible citizen to take care of the irresponsible. Either you properly plan for old age or have family members take care of you or keep working until you die. That's not cruel. That's fair. The price of freedom is responsibility.
Dan & Bill well what an eye opener for many as the problem you've clearly outlined today has been the real gorilla in the room for many years .. so very good to bring it to the surface of our 'always moving forward' reality, as if there were another reality that moved in a different direction? but even for those born before 1946, all of us now oldies must accept some responsibility for the current state of affairs especially the fact that from amongst the most financially, scientifically and by many other measurement, this was the most successful generation of our brief human history. So imagine all this came about through fear greed and corruption where the most unsuccessful failures, by any description, elect the perfect failure/representative to lead the united states into what? yes the question being asked around the world outside of the World Series Champion Ships of everything ever invented, that there is another world of humans beyond the US, who also looked towards the miracle that was the USA.. but not anymore. That dream has well and truly been shattered, so now yes it's time to relinquish the reigns and allow those who have more of whatever it was that the Boomers had to rebuild or better re-construct the future. So how do we facilitate that ? Boy that is a very dynamic and somewhat threatening outlook/subject for those of us who've benefited the most from these past 80 years of 'splendor in the grass' or 'like pigs in shit' whichever is your favorite definition ? I wonder what you both come up with tomorrow? which will give me time to visit the local mortician and make some arrangements for disposal eh? well done to ya both ! although Dan has a bit more time than Bill eh? it'll be fun to see your plan develop!
You do understand that Bill uses whatever tools are available to make an uncomfortable truth visible.
“The Case for Killing Granny” got your attention. That was the point. It is not a policy proposal. It is a rhetorical flare fired into the fog.
The real question is much less amusing: are we willing to stop the Ponzi logic today, or are we content to keep kicking the can down the road to our children and grandchildren?
Older generations were made promises. Social Security, OAS, Medicare, pensions, health benefits — all built on assumptions about demographics, productivity, interest rates, debt, and government finances. But things changed between the day those promises were made and the day the bills came due.
There are fewer workers per retiree. People live longer. Health care costs more. Governments spent more than they took in. Debt filled the gap. And now the political class pretends the promises can all be honoured without anyone paying more, receiving less, retiring later, or losing purchasing power through inflation.
That is the fiction.
The truth is simpler. Benefits will have to change. Taxes will have to rise. Inflation may absorb part of the gap. Government debt may keep rising until the bond market finally objects. Or, most likely, we will get some combination of all four.
That is what Bill is pointing at.
There is something revealing about the outrage, too.
A lot of people are not really angry because the system is unfair. They are angry because someone has pointed out that the system is unsustainable before they are finished collecting from it.
In other words, many people do not want the Ponzi logic to end. Not yet. Not while they are still on this side of the ledger. They would prefer the reckoning arrive later — after they have received their benefits, after the bill has been passed along, and, quite literally, after they are no longer here to answer for it.
That is not a moral position. It is intergenerational self-interest dressed up as compassion.
The outrage over the headline is easy. The arithmetic is harder. But being offended by the metaphor does not make the funding gap disappear. It only proves how difficult it is to have an honest conversation about promises that cannot be kept in their present form.
I started reading, “Super Imperialism” by Michael Hudson. Dan must have recommended it, or I heard it on the Tucker Carlson show.
Early on, it is quite a revelation. Deficits did not mater because the US debt was funded by other countries around the world.
Sounds ridiculous but true.
Read the book or listen, the demise of America is complicated.
Bill wants to blame it on baby boomers. How did they get rich, buying a house in the 70’s for 40k and the same house, 50 years later, is worth a million.
They caused the asset bubble?
No, the bankers and the top ten% got it, the money issued by banks, the multi billionaires. That same 10% earns 50% of the income. They account for 40% of consumption and own 80% of the assets. They pay a pittance in SS.
If I were an Eskimo, I would put Bill on the first ice flow heading North; he is either senile, unconscionable or he has one of his tunnel vision sycophants writing his column.
I use my remaining time providing opportunities for my children the same opportunities my father gave me. I sacrifice my own wellbeing.
Well Bill, like you and your wife, my wife and I, as well as most of your readers are the demographic you lightly excoreated today. We are Boomers. We are a very large cohort. We grew up in the cold war period. We were children of the fifties and sixties. We were told to get educated, go to college, better yet go to graduate school, get a professional degree...just be better. Work hard and work long. Most of us did as directed. We procreated and took care of our families. We absorbed the cultural dictates and followed the rules including those that govern our pensions and social security; we did not make the rules. Yes, we have the money. Yes, there are more of us and no, I do not regret a moment of it. And yes, my children will benefit. So what?
Tom, "right on" !!! I was born in 1947 and grew up in a poor situation but followed orders and worked hard for what my wife and I have. God has allowed us to have good health and that's the most valuable asset any of us can have. If I make it to "99" like my dad I'll probably run out of money but that's ok. My daughter and grandchildren will enjoy what's left. "WE", all of us old farts who worked for what we have should not feel bad for what we have. "WE" followed the game plan put before us.
The ponzi scheme is going to be very harsh on those behind us. They can thank FDR for the ponzi scheme.
Jim Marshall
Don't forget Nixon who made the money creation easy by taking the dollar off gold convertibility. Corruption flourished after that.
Bingo. So goes the money, so goes the moral corruption of the people.
Mr. Langdon, Correct, your children will benefit. And so will (and are) tens of millions of younger folk who get help along the way from their parents and grandparents even BEFORE the oldsters die. Money cycles through an economic system, and Bill should know this. But lately, I don't know what Bill, at 77, knows---or remembers. He writes essays like this about greedy baby boomers as if he doesn't even realize that tens of billions of dollars are passed from old to young while the old are still living. (In fact, it might be hundreds of billions.) And it's not just monetary. There is housing, food, transportation, job/health care assistance, etc. etc. that seniors help young folks with. Does Bill ever help his children or grandchildren? When they turned 18, he just told them to sink or swim? Maybe, but I doubt it.
Now is SS a great system? Of course not. But when one analyzes something, it's best not to generalize as Bill has done here with this essay.
Ah - my friend - I think you have missed the point.
This is commentary not a PLAN. Ease up. Taking things personally ?
Yes, but it is personal.
I guess one could take history personally - Sounds exhausting.
Seems to me we are witness.... sometimes pawns ...in a much larger story.
Boomers and Gen-X were financially responsible too
I saved and invested to achieve FIRE at 40 plus managed investments
for the children (UGMA and 529) now each has high 6 figures
Oldest able to go to grad school and received from internship 150K permanent offer
Read your essay today, Bill, and found I am the subject of it. I am 76, worked all my life, paid into social security begrudgingly, along with all the other taxes that the USG and associated states, counties, cities, school systems, utilities, etc. demanded. I am one of the fortunate ones. I was able to start a business, grow it and then sell it such that I banked a fair amount of money. I am not of your financial level by any means, but I don’t need to rely solely on social security to survive. Now don’t get me wrong. If I lose social security it will adversely affect my lifestyle, but I won’t be shopping in the Alpo aisle for dinner. Now guys like you probably don’t give a hoot about social security, and in fact should surrender their monthly paycheck back to the USG just to help slow its demise. You do that don’t you, Bill?
Now, you discuss how these old timers are contributing to the social security demise, both by living long enough to get more out of it than they deserve and by depriving the younger generations with opportunities for advancement. What a load of CRAP, Bill. We paid our social security, begrudgingly or not, because we were ordered to and because we were promised that we’d get it back as a return on our investment. Now the USG needs [wants] to renig on the deal and you think, or at least hint at, that is a good deal. How much of your worth was gotten by your business partners renigging on deals you made?
Second, you discuss how old timers are working too long! More CRAP, Bill. Some of those old timers are still working because they have to since even with their social security they don’t have sufficient means to live at an acceptable level. Some old timers went back to work because they are bored with retirement [“Welcome to Wal-Mart”]. Lots of career movement there! So, to wrap up this rant, Bill, I say your argument in support of your essay fail. Once again, I end with the recurring complaint: Give us financial advice and skip the political bitching and social sermonizing.
Bill has for so long been describing what was happening. Usually humorously but made his points clearly. Many of us elders (now) appreciated the info, chuckled and subtracted the potential end of social security funds from the year we were reading his essay on our fingers and toes and flippantly dismissed his points. Especially the government. Bill, et al, tried valiantly. Now the time is here. We don’t even need a whole handful of fingers but some of us are critically demanding forever compensation. Bill’s tongue in cheek style may be a bit bitter as it mixes with an awful lot of ‘I tried’ when perhaps he wants to say ‘I told you so’.
the 'truth' hurts eh .. don't take it so seriously .. your coffin's pockets are no bigger than Bill's ..
Great post Dan, I agree. Especially with Bonners political bitching and social sermonizing. I'm so sick of it this is the essay I have read in over a year. Not much has changed.
Dan agree with You, except the last line of Your response. Other than that all is well.
Thanks Bill. You really cut through the chaff in this one and I agree entirely. The whole awful mess is obviously unsustainable... in the words of Alex Haley — 'Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you.' Loved the separate wings of the same buzzard comment.
I fully agree with you. The ol' man is - once again - talking about reality. Why is it so hard for so many to see what is right in front of them. Bill isn't suggesting "we" go with the Eskimos in solving the wealth issue. What is in front of America is going to be horrific. The US$ may be the best fiat currency in the glue factory but it will still get crushed. Most of us peons on living paycheck to paycheck and including social security or retirement accounts. As inflation continues, how does this play out for us minions? Nothing to see here, Folks, move along.......but don't blame ol' Bill for the failure to see reality and what lies ahead.
I am with you, Mr. LSO. This is going to be horrific. I pray that I am wrong, but I fear that I am not. I hope to be okay with my geographic location, but you never know. God bless us all, my friend.
Bill, I have enjoyed your writings for at least 25 years. Don't always agree but I know you arn't looking for a pat on the back. I respect what you have accomplished with your business and the multiple properties around the world, a big accomplishment. NO, you don't need your S.S. check but I bet you put it in the back for a rainy day fund and so you should, you paid your taxes so you deserve it. Someday the under 50 crowd may wake up to the scam and VOTE for a big change, I hope so, but don't hold your breath. IN the meantime we'll keep paying for all the illegals who didn't pay a DAMN cent into the fund!
Jim Marshall
I'm angry about the misspent money; money that was collected for future SS benefits and was improperly spent by the congress. Remember Gore's SS lock box; political theater. I'll be 90 in July and have been collecting SS since age 65. That's 25 years, but I paid into SS for 45 years. I was drafted, during my junior semester., and spent 4 years in the USAF. I was being paid about $60.00/month as an A1C including overseas and hazardous pay, but I paid SS taxes. I paid the maximum SS tax until I was about 70; I'm still paying SS taxes. I calculated that if I took my SS tax and invested it at 5%, I would have had a multiple of the income paid to me by SS. But I wasn't given that choice. Teachers were, pastors were, RR unions were, and they all made out better than I did. So, don't lecture me about taking SS benefits.
The Libertarian worldview on display. Murder them while they are in the womb and contribute to the low birth rates and when their "monetary contribution" to society lessens get rid of them. That sixth commandment that forbids murder you know that its just optional (just like the other nine).
In regards to the quote from the Financial Times I believe its almost always been the case that people in their 50's and older are doing better from a financial stand point than they were in their 20's. Let's see if its not the same for our current group of twenty-year old's in another 25 years.
It's all Biden's fault.
I agree and the guy before him too. What was is name?
I agree, and also the guys before that guy "what's his name"...
😀
Like others on this comment string, I am in my mid seventies. I have been working since I was 14, doing lawns, as a caddy, a lifeguard, a waiter, and in steel mills, factories and refineries, as a writer, and for big oil. I was edged out at 56 when told I’d have to move 1000 miles to keep the job I had, and I chose to start a new career path instead. My parents retired well and gave me a model for adulthood, to save money, invest regularly, not be frivolous with savings, and look forward to some ease.
I didn’t resent their success and ease when they traveled widely while I had a big mortgage (remember 20% mortgages in the 80’s?) and kids who wanted a car and college.
Now my children, in their mid 40’s, are reasonably successful too.
My financial guy, when I hit 62/3, told me to take the SS $, and invest it cause I could do better than the admin. He was right.
I admire your abilities to make a “ton” of money, but I’m a bit dismayed at your criticisms. Few of us write newsletters from Ireland or Argentina on our own perspicacity then suggest to readers that they are failing general society on so many levels , but I do not recall being consulted on the growth of the Great Society or the multi fold expansion of SS benefits.
I suggested to my mother, when she called out the plight of poor people, that she should write a monthly check from her SS $ to some deserving family. She too declined.
I have contemplated the ice floe, but also the nation’s trillions spent/wasted for the betterment of other countries’ poor and unwashed, on grossly enlarged social programs, and a wacky tax system.
Solutions (all unpopular) could be:
—Caps on income and net worth
—high across the board income taxes without deductions
—ditto flat tax on all
—Canadian style MAID with bonuses when you hit 65
—exiling corrupt politicians without their funds, which instead become revenue
—better financial knowledge so young folks can do what you are doing;
—and so on.
Finally remember that when YOU hit 65 or 70, the Gen Z’s and A’s will have similar complaints about the Millennials who have outlived their usefulness, made “too much” money and aren’t sharing it. Maybe we need more planets to colonize.
Rick
—
I recall an episode of Sanford and Son in which Fred, thinking he was dying, lamented that he felt like an old Eskimo left out on a block of ice, to which his sister-in-law, Esther, remarked, "You old heathen, where you're going you gonna wish you had a big block of ice."
I am 76, the age at which most men, statistically, shuffle of this mortal coil. I have tried to age gracefully but my body is less cooperative in that endeavor on a regular basis. Having never married and without children I am now the last surviving member of my immediate family and my few friends have steadily died off. Now the looming question becomes how to exit this life gracefully...
Not to worry as death is the same as life, natural.
The concern is not with death itself, which is inevitable, but how to make it to the other side as gracefully as possible...
My strategy to exit gracefully is to keep exercising and eating well. So far it's working, 8 1/2 years paying for Medicare Parts B and I've never had to use it. (Guess I can say I'm helping to save the Medicare system). In fact, seeing so many people being diagnosed with some form of dementia, I've already decided that if it happens to me I'm going to step up the exercise to the point I either drop dead exercising or all that blood flowing in my brain results in a miraculous cure.
I am not interested in extending my life to the point that I spend my last months sitting in a wheelchair, staring at a blank wall. I am looking for a balance between quality of life and longevity...
But that's the reason for exercise and a healthy diet. You have a much better chance of just dropping dead instead of wasting away in a nursing home.
Assuming there is another side. Been told that since I was a pup but no one has come back and chatted with me about it. Call me cynical
I like riding roller coasters. Plan on riding until....
I have a better idea.Take the 5 trillion in revenue that the government gets in revenue and
give it to us.Problem solved.Of course the government employees have fat pensions and they can live of that.
The taxable maximum for SS Tax is $184500. Just raise this limit and high wage earners, and their employers, would pay more SS Tax. Simple. (currently, this is a 'regressive tax.') TRW
Agree. Been saying that for years to all congress. Why have a limit at all?
Bill, you're perpetuating a debunked stereotype. No, the Inuit didn't put the old folks out to die on the ice as a matter of course Occasionally, some oldies would volunteer to be abandoned. But mostly, as ChatGPT sez:
"A more accurate statement would be: in rare situations of extreme starvation, some Arctic communities may have accepted voluntary elder sacrifice or abandonment, but the common stereotype that Inuit routinely sent their elderly out on the ice to die is not supported by the historical evidence... In fact, elders were often highly valued because they held critical knowledge about hunting, weather, navigation, medicine, and survival."
Alas, the now culture places little value on the accumulated life wisdom of seniors like you and myself. It doesn't distill into 280 characters. Too bad no one is listening....
I along with the rest of my generation inherited Social Security from the FDR administration and
Medicare from the LBJ administration. FDR was implemented before I was born and Medicare before I could vote. Both are involuntary policies that were forced upon the American citizen. In a voluntary contractual capitalistic society old age poverty insurance and old age medical insurance would be up to the individual as a voluntary private decision. Old age does not sneak up mysteriously on anybody. It is not the responsibility of the responsible citizen to take care of the irresponsible. Either you properly plan for old age or have family members take care of you or keep working until you die. That's not cruel. That's fair. The price of freedom is responsibility.
Dan & Bill well what an eye opener for many as the problem you've clearly outlined today has been the real gorilla in the room for many years .. so very good to bring it to the surface of our 'always moving forward' reality, as if there were another reality that moved in a different direction? but even for those born before 1946, all of us now oldies must accept some responsibility for the current state of affairs especially the fact that from amongst the most financially, scientifically and by many other measurement, this was the most successful generation of our brief human history. So imagine all this came about through fear greed and corruption where the most unsuccessful failures, by any description, elect the perfect failure/representative to lead the united states into what? yes the question being asked around the world outside of the World Series Champion Ships of everything ever invented, that there is another world of humans beyond the US, who also looked towards the miracle that was the USA.. but not anymore. That dream has well and truly been shattered, so now yes it's time to relinquish the reigns and allow those who have more of whatever it was that the Boomers had to rebuild or better re-construct the future. So how do we facilitate that ? Boy that is a very dynamic and somewhat threatening outlook/subject for those of us who've benefited the most from these past 80 years of 'splendor in the grass' or 'like pigs in shit' whichever is your favorite definition ? I wonder what you both come up with tomorrow? which will give me time to visit the local mortician and make some arrangements for disposal eh? well done to ya both ! although Dan has a bit more time than Bill eh? it'll be fun to see your plan develop!
You do understand that Bill uses whatever tools are available to make an uncomfortable truth visible.
“The Case for Killing Granny” got your attention. That was the point. It is not a policy proposal. It is a rhetorical flare fired into the fog.
The real question is much less amusing: are we willing to stop the Ponzi logic today, or are we content to keep kicking the can down the road to our children and grandchildren?
Older generations were made promises. Social Security, OAS, Medicare, pensions, health benefits — all built on assumptions about demographics, productivity, interest rates, debt, and government finances. But things changed between the day those promises were made and the day the bills came due.
There are fewer workers per retiree. People live longer. Health care costs more. Governments spent more than they took in. Debt filled the gap. And now the political class pretends the promises can all be honoured without anyone paying more, receiving less, retiring later, or losing purchasing power through inflation.
That is the fiction.
The truth is simpler. Benefits will have to change. Taxes will have to rise. Inflation may absorb part of the gap. Government debt may keep rising until the bond market finally objects. Or, most likely, we will get some combination of all four.
That is what Bill is pointing at.
There is something revealing about the outrage, too.
A lot of people are not really angry because the system is unfair. They are angry because someone has pointed out that the system is unsustainable before they are finished collecting from it.
In other words, many people do not want the Ponzi logic to end. Not yet. Not while they are still on this side of the ledger. They would prefer the reckoning arrive later — after they have received their benefits, after the bill has been passed along, and, quite literally, after they are no longer here to answer for it.
That is not a moral position. It is intergenerational self-interest dressed up as compassion.
The outrage over the headline is easy. The arithmetic is harder. But being offended by the metaphor does not make the funding gap disappear. It only proves how difficult it is to have an honest conversation about promises that cannot be kept in their present form.
I started reading, “Super Imperialism” by Michael Hudson. Dan must have recommended it, or I heard it on the Tucker Carlson show.
Early on, it is quite a revelation. Deficits did not mater because the US debt was funded by other countries around the world.
Sounds ridiculous but true.
Read the book or listen, the demise of America is complicated.
Bill wants to blame it on baby boomers. How did they get rich, buying a house in the 70’s for 40k and the same house, 50 years later, is worth a million.
They caused the asset bubble?
No, the bankers and the top ten% got it, the money issued by banks, the multi billionaires. That same 10% earns 50% of the income. They account for 40% of consumption and own 80% of the assets. They pay a pittance in SS.
If I were an Eskimo, I would put Bill on the first ice flow heading North; he is either senile, unconscionable or he has one of his tunnel vision sycophants writing his column.
I use my remaining time providing opportunities for my children the same opportunities my father gave me. I sacrifice my own wellbeing.
Good comment mate!