<Ammonia Fuel Network Conference - 2008 The Oil Drum Creating a Post-Peak Future Worth Living Into>
<DrumBeat: October 28, 2008 DrumBeat DrumBeat: October 30, 2008>

237 comments on DrumBeat: October 29, 2008

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Show without comments | PDF version

Lynford on October 29, 2008 - 6:08pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Todd:

You are an anomaly according to Chris. Had your Dad been born later like only last year where he would still be a bouncing babe in excellent health, you are not really here except for some sort of time warp.

LOL

Chris: Please read your post before you hit the trigger.

Seriously though, I am in about the same shape. At 75, it can take all night to do what I used to do all night. I really hate to see these younger guys go off on some sort of tangent. What I really think is up is some sort of Soyant Green scenario where, you become a canned food product when you are no longer useful in the work force. Of course there are quite a few of us over aged well armed veterans that may not go for that idea.

Whichever future you wish to pick, it will be interesting.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
mdsolar on October 29, 2008 - 9:12pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I thought I had my meaning down clearly but I don't want to be misread on a fairly sensitive subject: People are liveing longer and staying healthier longer than they used to. Todd is apparently game for work near seventy while his father would not have been. All this is actually fairly statistical, but there is no reason not to bump up the retirement age if people are going to be living longer. As long as people still get a longer retirement than their parents, they are still "winning." Or getting an improved quality of life or whatever.

So, again, had Todd's father been born later, he would be more likely to live longer as well, on a statistical basis. If you don't read that in what I wrote, please try to see it in there now.

Chris

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
ccpo on October 29, 2008 - 9:22pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

People are living longer and staying healthier longer than they used to.

There are so many flaws in your thinking, I am amazed you cannot see them. First, the point already made. "IF" is not at issue. There are plenty of people alive now to make your "if" pointless.

As for health, you are looking at current trends. In a very short period of time, all those trends will be reversing due to a much lower standard of living.

Cheers

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Paleocon on October 29, 2008 - 9:35pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Though I agree about the sensitive nature of the topic, and I at least got to watch my parents enjoy 15 years of simple and modest retirement before they died. However, I have no expectation that I will be able to depend on social security even to the level they did, or that I will be able to hold on to meager investments and property at reasonable tax rates as they did.

I fully expect to have to work harder to acquire less, and to never be able to stop working, and yet I'll be happy if my kids (and grandkids?) can simply stay fed and have a decent life.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
mdsolar on October 29, 2008 - 10:24pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Life expectancy in the United States continues to increase. In
2004, American men could expect to live more than 3 years
longer, and women more than 1 year longer, than they did in
1990.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus07.pdf#027

Or, for a white male of black female life expenctancy at birth has gone from about 68 to 77 between 1970 and 2004. So, if the retirement age increase from 65 for people born in 1970 to 70 for people born in 2004 the people born later get 7 years of retirement rather than 3 on average. That is still a good deal. You will work longer, but you will also have longer to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Chris

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

237 comments on DrumBeat: October 29, 2008

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Show without comments | PDF version