What do you drink when your AARP card arrives?

originally posted by Peter Creasey:

Ours got shredded forever.

. . . . . Pete
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Mine too, for exactly the reason VLM mentions (maybe I should mail him his vast right-wing conspiracy membership card) -- and I also got it in my 20s.
 
On evolution: I would say 46 is about 10 years too many. You really only need to reproduce and get your offspring old enough to be on their own. Before neotony meant that human adulthood was 25-30, you could get killed off by the usual diseases in your mid 30s and have already been in decline.

Just societies do provide for their elderly rather than letting natural selection provide its own rough justice. AARP has nothing to do with that. They are in the business of protecting any entitlement that exists, regardless of the income of the person it benefits, not in the business of protecting the elderly in need.
 
Given what current elected officials are arranging for our country and its citizens, the elderly should take compassion given what is facing young people in the future instead of asking for more benefits/entitlements for themselves.

. . . . . . . Pete
 
It's hardly cynical to say that compassion is rarely a dominant driving force within the American political system (except in grossly simplistic terms, as in some aspects of the abortion debate). On the contrary, I fear vicious inter-generationally-defined political dynamics on the program in coming decades, as social security and medicare spending increasingly dominates the federal budget. At least, I don't expect the oldsters to be conspicuously more altruistic than the youngsters.

Potentially rich social background material here for science fiction writers nesting plots in the near future.
 
Except that polls say that young people are mostly responsible for electing the current power wielder(s); thus, it is almost as though the young people are unknowingly doing it to themselves.

The elderly will be mostly gone when things really go south.

. . . . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

Except that polls say that young people are mostly responsible for electing the current power wielder(s); thus, it is almost as though the young people are unknowingly doing it to themselves.
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This makes no sense.

Young people are neither the core constituency nor a key swing constituency for either party on the national level. The same should be true on the state level, at least to my knowledge. Perhaps at a lower level, but then those wouldn't be the power wielders you're talking about.

Young people are also solidly Democratic and the current power wielders are pretty evenly divided between Dems and Republicans.

Not sure what you're talking about?
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

....

The elderly will be mostly gone when things really go south.

. . . . . . Pete
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This makes no sense. If 'the elderly' are 'mostly gone,' there is no social security and medicare spending problem.
 
Polls show that young people have recently been a key part of the swing vote.

I was referring to the current elderly.

. . . . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

....

The elderly will be mostly gone when things really go south.

. . . . . . Pete
Click to expand...

This makes no sense. If 'the elderly' are 'mostly gone,' there is no social security and medicare spending problem.
Click to expand...

I'm sure Pete means the current elderly. The elderly can never really "be gone" . Replaced is a better way to say it.
 
The comment still doesn't have a lot of traction: the seeds of conflict are sown between whatever youth and over-65ers are on the scene, whenever these entitlement programs enter serious crisis. The disputes over taxation we're having now will seem like patty-cake by contrast, if the system isn't mended in the interim.
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

Polls show that young people have recently been a key part of the swing vote.
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For electing President, in certain states. But that's only one office and the current policy problems with intergenerational spending fall pretty evenly across parties/branches of government.
 
Ian, You keep talking about conflict.

I've been talking about current elderly who are feeling compassion for what youth will be facing due to what's transpiring at this time.

. . . . . . Pete
 
What compassion from the elderly? 56% of the elderly voted Republican after the GOP promised to keep Medicare intact for everyone 55 years or older, thus enabling the GOP to deprive younger generations of the same benefits that the elderly are currently enjoying.

And, let us not forget that Obama got attacked by the GOP for placing cost controls on Medicare Advantage spending in order to keep the entire program solvent.

It seems like younger generations know which party is looking out for them and voted quite rationally this past election.
 
Hey, this isn't about cutting entitlements to ease the future burden on the young -- it's to give more tax cuts to the 0.1% and easing their burden.

. . . Well, I guess there is a certain percentage of the young that will make it to the 0.1%, so maybe it's about easing their future burden, too.
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

Ian, You keep talking about conflict.

I've been talking about current elderly who are feeling compassion for what youth will be facing due to what's transpiring at this time.

. . . . . . Pete
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No you haven't, you wrote they should feel compassion. But possibly you wanted readers to imagine the word 'are' instead of the word 'should,' just as we were meant to imagine the word 'current' before the word 'elderly.'

So, if I fail fail to follow you, chalk it up to a lack of imagination.
 
Ian, Okay!

Sorry the electronic dialogue didn't properly suggest to you "currently" and "are". Both, if inadequately expressed, were (and are) sincerely intended.

On to happier scenarios!

. . . . . . Pete
 
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