Immortalism

[hobbsyoyo]

I enjoy thinking about the big picture and very long time scales.

 

[El_Machinae]

A lot of the graphs I look at are for various ecological and economic forecasts. And a LOT of them end at 2100 CE for aesthetics reasons.

I have kids that will probably be alive then. My Immortalist dreams aside, I have kids that gotta live with what lies on the other sides of those graphs.

 

[Kyriakos]

Behind the lines last on those graphs dancing oceanic weeds their dreams harass.

 

[El_Machinae]

Do all retired people feel they are receiving money transferred from the young?

Very few do. They feel like they're being 'paid back' for the money they lent the government. This is why they feel entitled to their entitlement. And I'm not really making a moral judgement on this, except when they complain about it being unfair and then hypocritically don't acknowledge that that modern taxpayer is paying them back for a debt imposed upon them by someone else. But this doesn't change that SS was started out of sympathy and that it doesn't easily handle an ever-expanding number of retired people living longer. It will need a solution, and 'healthy people continuing to work' shouldn't be outside the list of possible solutions. People who think they're 'owed' a retirement have a reasonable moral claim to the profits of their work (both first-order AND second-order), but then asking for a ever-expanding share of those profits just won't work.

 

[timtofly]

Very few do. They feel like they're being 'paid back' for the money they lent the government. This is why they feel entitled to their entitlement. And I'm not really making a moral judgement on this, except when they complain about it being unfair and then hypocritically don't acknowledge that that modern taxpayer is paying them back for a debt imposed upon them by someone else. But this doesn't change that SS was started out of sympathy and that it doesn't easily handle an ever-expanding number of retired people living longer. It will need a solution, and 'healthy people continuing to work' shouldn't be outside the list of possible solutions. People who think they're 'owed' a retirement have a reasonable moral claim to the profits of their work (both first-order AND second-order), but then asking for a ever-expanding share of those profits just won't work.

I agree then, except it was set out on the statistical analysis that a decent percentage would not be able to collect, and that is the point that needs to be corrected. I think it was corrected in raising the age limit, except that hit the brick wall of health issues and some not being able to work at an even younger age. Thus making the gap even wider of people not paying into the system by working. Perhaps I am wrong, and even a portion of government assistence goes into SS. Then again how many are not working nor receiving government assistance?

 

[El_Machinae]

For very good reasons, I wasn't paying attention science stories as much as I should in 2015

And so, I totally missed the story on metformin developing.
http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(16)30229-7

There's a small study starting that will look at why and if metformin can delay aging-related symptoms in people. More later, since I'm popping out.