Fluky Tidbits

Christopher Buckley's
Latest Lampoon
Blogger Cassandra Devine introduces Voluntary Transitioning as the solution to the U.S. Social Security crisis as Baby-Boomers retire.

Buckley's satire is based on this:
In 1950, 16 workers' contributions to Social Security in the U.S. funded one retiree.
In 2032, it is projected that only 2 workers will fund a Social Security beneficiary. (MacLean's June 18, 2007)

Cassandra's suggestion includes incentives to Boomers who volunteer to die at retirement age. It's ridiculous (isn't it?) to offer euthanasia to a generation in the name of fiscal economics...Watch what happens to Generational Divide after her blog posts.

Scared of the Social Security side of the novel? Then, read Boomsday (Twelve, Hatchette Book Group, 2007) for its secondary characters - the Congressman with Presidential ambitions, the sleazy Chief-of-Staff, the out-spoken Pro-Lifer, the back-room politics...and some of the best lines are given to The President.

Tags: [Boomsday] [Christopher Buckley]
[Social Security] [Political Satire]


It's chilee in Chile

Anyone else find it odd that 47% of traffic to this site originates in the U.S., compared to just 34% from Canada?

The point of this pie-chart is just to point out the 2% of readers from Chile!


[Gideon Payne] [Riley Peacham]

Plus, P. J. O'Rourke

An explanation of Adam Smith's thrilling 3-volumes on the mercantile system and economics...part of O'Rourke's "Books That Shook The World Series".

Even O'Rourke's sarcasm can't dismiss the relevance of Smith's economic theories..more than 200 years after he published them. Let's just say that O'Rourke's interpretation is plenty different than my Econ profs at university!

You just gotta admire that someone read the original 900 pages and offered up such an amusing summary!

Tags: [P.J. O'Rourke] [Adam Smith] [Wealth of Nations]