A grocery store around here that uses greeters is clearly hiring to do “good works”, not the most talented person for the job … not that the requirements for greeter are very significant. Another grocery store around here also hires a percentage of handicapped people to do things like pack bags and fetch carts.
1 Like
Um, that’s exactly when you DO thought experiments.
Literally impossible?
What if there was a Platinum Swan event?
OK, I just made that up. Swans are white, so I can’t use that. Black swan events are already in use. Golden swan is a parable. So what is a Platinum Swan event? A Platinum Swan event is when something extremely positive happens that no one anticipated.
Medical AI discovers a cure for cancers. Or methods to significantly slow down aging. UAPs are really extraterrestrial and they have super advanced medical techniques. I win PowerBall.
There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive
In thought experiments, nothing is literally impossible, just improbable. Just ask Miracle Max.
4 Likes
Both of you are wrong about this. You do a thought experiment when it is impossible to do a real experiment, or simply when it is done to illustrate a theory or point.
@Goofyhoofy Ask yourself why Einstein did his famous thought experiment as “traveling at the speed of light” instead of traveling at twice the speed of light?
You do a thought experiment at the far reaches of possibility, often exactly at the furthest edge of possibility. Ancient Greeks did it, it is done in the Talmud, etc. It is done to prove things at their limits.
Thought experiment:
How do you get an elephant into the typical room where everyone is sitting around thinking about things that are only possible?
Mike
2 Likes
I can’t speak for Goofy (I used to think that he and I were the only sane people on these boards, but lately, I’m worried about him), but I very respectfully disagree.
And I have the utmost respect for Al (I also have the utmost respect for Albaby, but I’m currently referring to Albert Einstein). Weird how Al (the name) looks just like AI (artificial intelligence). But I digress (OK, that train may have left the station in the previous paragraph).
Maybe Al should have done a thought experiment about moving faster than light:
Man, talk about a Platinum Swan Event.
Think outside the box, Mark. 
6 Likes
Toss some peanuts into the room? 
2 Likes
Krugman has an interesting stat in today’s column, which frames the “increase the retirement age” in a revealing way:
The other idea I hear a lot is that we should raise the retirement age — which has already been increased, from 65 to 67. After all, people are living longer, so they can work longer, right?Well, some people are living longer. But one key point in thinking about Social Security is that the number of years you can expect to spend collecting benefits has become increasingly linked to the income you earned earlier in your life. Here’s a chart everyone discussing retirement ages should know about, although many don’t. It shows how life expectancy at age 65 has changed for Americans with different levels of income:
Money is time (to live).Credit…Congressional Research ServiceLife expectancy has indeed risen a lot for the affluent, but for the less well-paid members of the working class, it has hardly risen at all.
What this means is that [calling for an increase in the retirement age] is, in effect, saying that janitors can’t be allowed to retire because lawyers are living longer. Not a very nice position to take.
11 Likes
As offered here before. Ideology dictates that everything be rationed by ability to pay. Anything that “levels the playing field” is socialistical, thus, by definition, unacceptable.
Steve
4 Likes
The regressive death rate!
This is also along racial lines. With poorer v richer people differing by 15 years of life.
Ready for the answer? For females, the average 65-year-old can expect to live to 86 years old, and males can expect to live to 83. According to the CDC, as of 2019, a 65-year-old woman lived an average of an additional 20.8 years, and 65-year-old men lived an average of an additional 18.2 years.Jul 6, 2022
Now in my family add possibly an additional 7 years, we live to 90 and 93. Then for my parents as immigrants add a possible 5 years extra making it 95 and 98. My grandmother came here at age 76 and lived to 98.
This is absolutely correct, and if this were the only concern then raising the retirement age is absolutely the wrong thing to do. But there is another elephant in the retirement room. There is a lot of evidence that most boomers have not saved nearly enough for retirement. In fact, one study (below) estimates that 70% of boomers will face financial hardship in their retirement.
Foreshadowing this are labor data showing rapidly rising rates of senior participation in the job market. Labor participation rates in 1996 for 65-74 year olds was 18% and for 75+ about 5%, compared to 2026 projections of 30% and 11%, respectively. Think about that, soon about 10% of those 75 and older will have to work to make ends meet. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2019/labor-force-participation-rate-for-workers-age-75-and-older-projected-to-be-over-10-percent-by-2026.htm
Regardless of what Krugman says, there is a retirement crisis and it goes beyond the solvency of social security. The majority of boomers simply haven’t saved enough, with or without social security, to retire. The only solutions I can see is to either find enough money to raise the monthly SS benefits or increase the availability of jobs for seniors who can’t afford to retire.
Raising the retirement age can contribute to both when packaged with other reforms. Yeah, it is painful to have to work longer. But if in return you get a larger monthly check that keeps you from having to work after 70, may be it is worth it.
2 Likes
That study is an outlier; most I have seen put the number at 50%. Not to be sneezed at either, but then that number has been constant since before Social Security was enacted by FDR, so it’s not a surprise.
So what has that 50% done for the last 90 years? Consumed a little less, moved to a cheaper home (often in the sun belt), or used other strategies to lower their expenses. (I have a SIL who lived in a trailer. She accepted charity from her father [while alive] but will not from us. She watches her pennies carefully, and works weekends as a caregiver for a very elderly woman.) She could not have existed without Social Security, which she took early.
{Sidebar: the SIL is college educated, Masters, actually, but made several poor employment choices along the way leading to multiple part-time jobs teaching and no benefits. She has never lived anything close to an extravagant lifestyle.}
I have no doubt that there will be some of that, I just don’t want to make it required , which raising the age will do.
Not if you want to, only if you have to. Our tax lawyer is in his 80’s and loves it. Good for him. I just don’t think a 68-year old who for whatever reason has been dumped by the industrial roadside should be forced to. There are plenty of other options. Let this one go.
5 Likes
Even if she had waited for full retirement the most she could get paid in the US Social Security system os about $3,400.
In countries like Sweden (retirement pension in Sweden?)
Full guarantee pension is $7,899 per month
The United States is the wealthiest county on Earth, but the US retirement system is third world
2 Likes
This is hilarious!!! The guaranteed Swedish retirement pension is 7,899 SEK … that’s US $755.43 at today’s exchange rate.
Also, please note that in Sweden, social insurance taxes are 31+% from the employer and 4+% from the employee.
8 Likes
Most countries have less generous old age pensions than we do. Surprise? Maybe not. What they also have is less need for old age pensions. People have better jobs, better working environments, better job security and better Safety net" for lack of a better word i.e unemployment comp, more disposable income and fewer large critical expenses, more leisure time and more bread to spend thereon, and on average a generally higher standards of living.
2 Likes
That’s the guaranteed Swedish retirement pension
… The United State’s Guaranteed social security payment is Zero
The max pension payment in Sweden is SEK 46,438 per month.
4 Likes
Not true. If you took part in the program, even if you only worked fro 30 years, the minimum monthly benefit is $950.80.
Social security max is a tiny bit higher than this. But max isn’t meaningful because all social security programs are specifically designed to provide only up to a certain amount.
2 Likes
Hey Mark can you go a little easier on us
btw the difference is in the average payout more than likely. When 60% of American workers were making less than $40k in 2019…what is the payout?
1 Like
What Is The Average Social Security Check? | Bankrate.
Social Security offers a monthly benefit check to many kinds of recipients. As of October 2022, the average check is $1,550.48, according to the Social Security Administration – but that amount can differ drastically depending on the type of recipient. In fact, retirees typically make more [$1630] than the overall average.
DB2
2 Likes