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from the sign-me-up-for-the-next-hermit-convention dept.
The nation's nerds woke up in a utopia this morning, one where everyone stays inside, sporting events are being canceled, and all social interaction is forbidden.
All types of nerds, from social introverts to hardcore PC gamers, welcomed the dawn of this new era, privately from their own homes.
"I have been waiting my whole life for this moment," said Ned Pendleton, 32 -- via text message, of course -- as he fired up League of Legends on his beefy gaming PC. "They told me to take up a sport and that the kids playing basketball and stuff were gonna be way more successful than us nerds who played Counter-Strike at LAN parties every weekend."
Always look on the bright side of life.
[Certainly an element of gallows humor, but it does offer a different perspective from the incessant drumbeat of gloom and doom surrounding the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. What "positives" have you seen? --martyb]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday March 15 2020, @02:58AM (17 children)
I think we're missing the point, this would be the Trump plan to fix Medicare: just make sure nobody lives past 65 and the whole thing is solvent again!
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 15 2020, @03:41AM (8 children)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday March 15 2020, @10:27AM (7 children)
It most definitely was part of the plan. The life expectancy was considerably shorter back then. You can't run a successful Ponzi Scheme if everyone is able to get their money back eventually.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Sunday March 15 2020, @12:36PM (6 children)
Hey kids: I bet you didn't know your were born to fill in the bottom of a pyramid scheme!
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 15 2020, @02:32PM (5 children)
Having said that, I first learned about the Social Security/Medicare problem in the late 1980s from a discarded book, with a photo of colored matchsticks displayed in some of US flag-colored pattern (US outline or flag, I don't recall) caught in the act of burning away. The book exaggerated the situation somewhat, but was still a remarkable bit of prognostication. 30 years later, here we are going through the start of the problems that book detailed.
I also find it remarkable how some of the more vocal defenders here will take the brunt of the fallout from these pyramid schemes' failures. It's like it's karma.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday March 15 2020, @03:16PM (4 children)
Like Malthus, anybody can do the math and see the looming problem - predicting the date that the market stampedes off the cliff irretrievably is the trick.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 15 2020, @03:50PM (3 children)
It's not the market that will stampede here. My guess is someone with a perfect haircut, white teeth, and a truckload of empty promises will do the job all under the guise of protecting those programs - printing money to cover obligations they can't dodge, killing elderly patients through neglect to lower demand, taxing more, and of course, forcing as many people as they can off that cliff for that greater good.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday March 15 2020, @04:09PM (2 children)
The system is global, some countries have limited impact, but the major players in the major markets have more impact on the success and failure of government programs than anything the lawmakers can do. The biggest player of all is consumer sentiment - if too many consumers all pucker up and start hoarding toilet paper, there's no stopping the inevitable messy results - and consumer sentiment affects far more than toiletries.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 15 2020, @06:30PM (1 child)
That's pretty flimsy even for toilet paper. The messy results are negated by private parties making more toilet paper and consumers eventually running out of places to put all that toilet paper. Consumer sentiment doesn't have anything to do with programs like Social Security or Medicare which are demand controlled - you get what you get. OTOH, if you're saying that there are unintended consequences from "major players" due to monkeying around with these huge programs? Well, me too!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Sunday March 15 2020, @06:44PM
But, does this happen before the shit hits the fan? Not for the majority of consumers who seem likely to run out before restocking happens. In slightly more serious areas: acquaintances of ours work in the prison system, they use face masks year round for protection against various things various inmates are infected with - guess who just ran 100% out of facemasks this morning?
Various forms of consumer sentiment determine the majority of the federal tax income stream. Did Clinton "balance the budget"? That brief, apparently accidental, budget balancing was mostly a result of how the economy was running - including an opening of investor wallets on an unprecedented scale, in combination with a lack of Republican trashing of the federal budget for a few years. It's all tied together.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 16 2020, @03:23PM (7 children)
Two problems:
1. Allowing people to live past 30 may not be a sustainable use of planetary resources.
2. People aged 65 don't make good runners.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 16 2020, @04:06PM (6 children)
Have you watched Logan, recently? It's classically corny.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 16 2020, @07:00PM (5 children)
Actually, yes. I watched it sometime last year. I watched a couple times. I only got to see it once in my teenage years, and maybe again in college. So I definitely wanted a refresh. I've also learned that things that formed an impression in one's youth are worth re-watching or for books re-reading in one's older years. Sometimes a different perspective that comes with age.
As for corny, yes. But so is a lot of sci fi from the 60s and 70s. Nevermind martian bugs from the 50's.
A thought about Logan's run. If someone can no longer be part of the society after age 30, what would be wrong if they want to live but go outside the domed city and try to make a life on their own. But they wouldn't be "on their own" for long, as others would join them. But it would be a society of "old" people in their 30's and older. If those "old" people could continue to procreate, then I wonder just how soon their population would overwhelm the "utopian" city of domes? And if they procreate, they're not all going to be over 30 anymore. Within less than twenty more years you're going to have more births from younger fitter people. Maybe the city's founders realized and feared this.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 16 2020, @07:38PM (4 children)
If I were a city founder, I might be inclined to reduce the number of people who might piss in my water supply - among other things. Modern day New York City is incredibly dependent on natural resources from nearby rural New York - especially drinking water.
Back then, "never trust anyone over 30" was still a saying you'd hear once in a while - my father had a bit of a crisis as his 30th birthday approached.
As for corny, if you want to make Logan's Run look high tech, watch "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (original, of course) again...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 17 2020, @01:49PM (3 children)
If you really want that type of bad Sci Fi, watch The Core. I almost didn't make it through that movie. Some movies just make it impossible to suspend disbelief.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 17 2020, @02:54PM (2 children)
The Core led me to rewatch Journey... they're both slightly farther out on the request for suspension of disbelief than Buckaroo Banzai and his trips through solid matter.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 17 2020, @03:30PM (1 child)
(groan) I remember when my wife made me watch Buckaroo Banzai.
Then there came a time when Geordi on ST:TNG mentioned "oscillation over thruster" in some bit of "treknobabble".
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 17 2020, @07:47PM
Buckaroo Banzai is the fore-runner/basis of so much: the Back to the Future flux capacitor, obviously... Ready Player One calls it out directly, I forget all the references but there are literally dozens.
🌻🌻 [google.com]