SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Saturday March 14 2020, @11:45PM (16 children)
Huh? Boomers aren't all retired yet. Yeah, they're all at least in their 50s (I think that generation is supposed to start around 1962, so about 57 years old now?), but there's still plenty of working people in their late 50s and 60s. Remember, you can't draw Social Security until 65 at the very earliest I think, and you get the best benefits if you wait until 72. So there's lots of boomers still working. Trump, for instance, is definitely a Boomer and he's certainly not retired.
However, the way this disease works, it's by far hardest on older people, so Boomers will be hardest hit. Of course, they're also largely guilty of giving us a society with such a disastrously horrible healthcare system, so it does seem like just desserts.... And if it kills a lot of them off, it'll certainly have a big effect on politics in this country for a long time.
(Score: 5, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday March 14 2020, @11:56PM (5 children)
Try 1945. Named so for the explosive birth rate after the end of WWII.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Grishnakh on Sunday March 15 2020, @12:43AM (4 children)
That's when the Boomer generation started. I'm talking about when it ended, which was in the 60s somewhere.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 15 2020, @01:41AM (3 children)
You did say "I think that generation is supposed to start around 1962, so about 57 years old now?". It was not obvious that you were counting backwards from 1962.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday March 15 2020, @02:21AM (2 children)
I understood him to mean the youngest age that qualified as a boomer. We all accept that a 70 year old is a "boomer", but what's the youngest? And that target got moved over the years. It originally meant people born 1945-1955.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 15 2020, @02:37AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDKWTehsomk [youtube.com]
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 15 2020, @05:53PM
Well TMB can't think critically, once he has a thought that is THE only valid opinion around. To him anyway, the rest of us sigh and move on, arguing with him is like talking to the seat back on a short yellow bus.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 15 2020, @03:42AM (5 children)
Earliest eligibility age is 62.
But, if you run the numbers, you then have to live until you are about 83 years old before the "better benefit" of waiting until 72 returns more total cash than starting at 62.
Yes, the size of each check is larger, but starting at 62 you get ten years worth of smaller checks before you get that first age 72 check, and those slightly larger age 72 checks have to make up for those ten years worth of accumulated smaller check amounts.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 15 2020, @04:33AM (4 children)
I can't think like that. My take home pay is considerably larger than SS + 401k would be if I were to retire right now. So, I keep working, which mean that both SS and 401 keep growing. If/when I retire, I'll get more money.
Retirement is for old, worn out people who can't work. In fact, I think that's what congress was talking about when they created social security. They never really considered that people would just get lazy, and use social security to lie about doing nothing.
My wife is talking about retirement, but hasn't decided when she's going to do so. I haven't even given it serious thought. I'll just keep on working until one of a couple things happens.
1. the job dries up and blows away
2. I'm sick or hurt and can't work
3. I'm sick or hurt and working becomes more of a hassle than I can deal with (which is not precisely the same thing as #2)
4. Maybe I reach 75 or 80 years old, which will shock hell out of me - I didn't expect to reach 30!
5. I just drop dead
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 15 2020, @08:08PM (1 child)
I pick no. 5. How soon can you do it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 15 2020, @08:12PM
You only get a vote if you pray to the magic fairy in the sky. Or, one of the fairies who have been elected to public office in recent years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 16 2020, @11:54AM (1 child)
Point 4: Me either
wtf happened...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 16 2020, @12:49PM
The good died young, dude, and we're stuck here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 15 2020, @04:34AM
You can retire as early as age 62. You get the best benefits if you wait until age 70. You actually start to lose money if you wait until after age 70, because you get no more credits after the month you turn age 70.
(Score: 5, Informative) by mcgrew on Sunday March 15 2020, @10:40AM (1 child)
Ignorance is NOT bliss, kid.
Remember, you can't draw Social Security until 65 at the very earliest
62, 65 for full benefits. I turned 62 and retired in 2014.
Boomers will be hardest hit. Of course, they're also largely guilty of giving us a society with such a disastrously horrible healthcare system
Wrong again.We boomers inherited that abysmal system. Oh, and you can thank us for cleaning up the toxic environmental mess the "Greatest Generation" left us, too. Like I told another dumb kid on Facebook, all the problems you inherited we boomers inherited and have been trying to fix all our lives.
So have a little respect for your elders, you snotnosed kid.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 16 2020, @01:02PM
My wife is sixteen months older than I am. We've both been getting statements from SS for years now. Her statement does not look like my statement. She can retire at 63 (too late now) or she can retire at 65 for "full benefits".
I can retire at 63 for "early retirement", or 65, or wait until 72 for "full benefits".
That stuff is all being grandfathered into a new plan. Apparently, the goal is less to reduce benefits, than to A: make you work longer for those benefits, and B: maybe reduce the number of people who survive to draw those benefits.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 15 2020, @08:49PM
Neither Nixon or Ted Kennedy [wikipedia.org] were boomers.