[ExI] Change of thought (was Just curious, it's not natural!)

[aiguy at comcast.net]

Come on Spike if Anna Nicole Smith could figure this out, I'm sure you can too!

Spike asked...

>> What a racket this could be, for high earners to marry a low earner when the
rich person has only months to live.  An old rich person could marry a young
low earner, and thus the social security system could be looted.  It isn't
clear to me what the rich terminal person could be given in exchange.


-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "spike" <spike66 at comcast.net> 

> > bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Anna Taylor 
> > Subject: [ExI] Change of thought (was Just curious, it's not natural!) 
> > 
> > I had the privilege last weekend to attend my first 
> > gay marriage. Before the wedding, I thought deeply 
> > about what my conviction was regarding gay marriage. 
> ... 
> > Anna 
> 
> 
> 
> I have some questions for the legal eagles of the group. It would be even 
> more interesting if the Brits and Europeans comment. 
> 
> If a spouse perishes, I understand that the surviving spouse gets the social 
> security payment that is the higher of the two. So if the survivor made 
> more money longer, then no change in benefits. But if the lower paid spouse 
> is the survivor, he or she gets a raise when the richer spouse perishes. 
> 
> What a racket this could be, for high earners to marry a low earner when the 
> rich person has only months to live. An old rich person could marry a young 
> low earner, and thus the social security system could be looted. It isn't 
> clear to me what the rich terminal person could be given in exchange. 
> 
> Questions: 
> 
> If gay marriage becomes legal, would that problem be worse? Could a sick 
> rich person marry her grandson's girlfriend in order to provide them with a 
> generous pension while they are in their twenties? Is it any different than 
> the kinds of abuses that could theoretically be pulled off now? For 
> instance, an old sick person could marry her granddaughter's boyfriend in a 
> fake marriage, while the young couple still carries on as before. So from a 
> social security pension point of view (the only reason I care about who is 
> allowed to marry) would gay marriage have any impact? Does Europe have 
> similar issues? 
> 
> spike 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________ 
> extropy-chat mailing list 
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org 
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20070904/86163f01/attachment.html>