As a young assistant professor, my instruction on teaching amounted to … being given directions to the lecture theater. Period.

Just to clarify, retirement age was originally set to 65 by … Bismarck! He implemented various socialist schemes to co-opt the socialists, retirement pensions being one example. In the 19th century few people made it to 65, which of course was whole idea. Roosevelt and Co. merely adopted Bismarck’s choice.

There was a time when the SS budget was accounted for separately from the rest of the federal budget. If we hadn’t stopped that we might not be in the predicament we are now but unfortunately it is too late to fix it by twirling an accounting wand. We are going to have to make some painful choices.

You wouldn’t *believe* how easy it is!

Wow, that is *exactly* what happened to my mother and this was in the 1950s! Before she married my father, my mom got a degree in biology and worked as a lab assistant. When I was very young my father got sick and she had to go back to work. She wanted to be a high school biology teacher but instead of taking biology courses to update her knowledge she was forced to take all the education courses. So she became a 5th grade teacher instead which she did for the next 30 years.

It is pointed out in one or two other comment threads dated today, that discouragement or pessimism is ^not^ the same as giving up. The discouraged/pessimistic among us will fight the good fight, for what other option is there?

By the way, your kind suggestion to attempt the anatomically impossible does no credit to your point of view, nor does it enhance your position. Methinks a dose of temperance is in order; we’re kindred spirits here (the occasional troll notwithstanding).

Even the most pessimistic gloomers here are not the enemy. Fly, vinegar, honey. Personally, I’ll give up when I die.

FUCK YOU.

We’ll do it WITHOUT your help while you sit there whining “it can’t be done”.

I repeat: FUCK YOU.

Is it going to be easy?

NO.

Is it going to be fun?

NO.

But you just sitting there on your dumb FAT ASSES complaining about how hard it will be isn’t going to do ANY GOOD EITHER WAY.

So do those of us willing to MAKE THE EFFORT a Great Big Favor and open up a giant-ass can of Shut The Fuck Up, and Get the Fuck Out Of The Way.

You’re no better than the whiny ass libtards who were complaining about what was going on in Iraq — you make it easier for the enemy, and harder for us, you worthless defeatist assholes.

So just STFU.

Yeah, YOU. If there’s any question if I’m talking to YOU, then YEAH, I’m talking to YOU.

>:-/

True, as far as it goes, but incomplete. There was another big reason Social Security passed: the actuarial tables of the day. That’s why the retirement age was originally set at 65. It wasn’t just a random number pulled out of the air. At the time, most Americans died within a few years either side of 65. Families were also much larger then than they are now. Therefore, it was thought that the payout to retirees would never exceed the amount new funds coming into the system from taxes on younger workers. FDR and the other early proponents of Social Security failed to account for both the increase in longevity among the elderly and the reduction in family size, leading to far more beneficiaries receiving payouts for a much longer time under a structure that is being funded by fewer workers relative to the number of beneficiaries. It didn’t start out as a Ponzi scheme, but that’s what it’s become.