[extropy-chat] Extropian Scorecard

MB mbb386 at main.nc.us
Sat Nov 6 19:23:39 UTC 2004


IIUC, social security is supposed to start paying out at a certain
age, no matter if you're healthy, sick, employed, retired, etc.
Therefore, unless the age to start payouts is radically changed,
social security will go bust very shortly after a large number of
folks stay alive (thus collecting) longer than expected.

In fact, I think this is already a good part of the problem. Note that
congress has already been known to change the age at which one can
begin to receive benefits...


Regards,
MB

On Sat, 6 Nov 2004, Damien Broderick wrote:

> At 10:12 AM 11/6/2004 -0800, Mike wrote:
>
> >The one thing I'm looking forward to about practical immortality is
> >that its primary impact will be to bankrupt the social security system
> >beyond the ability of any government to fix it in any semblance of its
> >current form.
>
> As usual, I must be missing something here. If `social security' is
> shorthand for collective funding of pensions for the ill, the incapacitated
> and those made feeble by old-age, plus collective funding of some or all
> medical expenses, then `practical immortality' largely does away with the
> need for such a system. It could increase the need for spending on
> continuing education, say, assuming any jobs remain for humans, and that
> any humans remain in the first place. But I can't see why keeping everyone
> healthy and youthful would `bankrupt the social security system'. On the
> contrary, I think this is one of the great benefits of any negligible
> senescence treatment, and a major motive for governments to invest heavily
> in its development *before* the shit hits the fan.
>
> Damien Broderick
>



More information about the extropy-chat mailing list