Posted on 10/15/2007 2:18:55 PM PDT by trumandogz
WASHINGTON — The nation's first baby boomer applied for Social Security benefits today, signaling the start of an expected avalanche of applications from the post World War II war generation.
Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a former teacher from New Jersey, applied for benefits over the Internet at an event attended by Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue. Casey-Kirschling, who now lives in Maryland, was born one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, making her the first baby boomer — a generation of nearly 80 million born from 1946 to 1964, Astrue said.
Casey-Kirschling will be eligible for benefits after she turns 62 next year.
An estimated 10,000 people a day will become eligible for Social Security benefits over the next two decades, Astrue said.
The Social Security trust fund, if left alone, is projected to go broke in 2041, though Astrue said he hopes Congress will address the issue, perhaps after the 2008 presidential election.
United States
There is some disagreement as to the exact beginning and end dates of the baby boom, but the range most commonly accepted is as starting in 1946 and ending in 1964.[2][3][4] The problem with this definition is that this period may be too long for a cultural generation, even though it covers a time of increased births. If the gross number of births were the indicator, births began to decline from the peak in 1957 (4,300,000), but fluctuated or did not decline by much more than 40,000 (1959-1960) to 60,000 (1962-1963) until a sharp decline from 1960 (4,027,490) to 1965 (3,760,358). This makes 1964 a good year to mark the end of the baby boom in the U.S.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomer
Maybe you are a SHADOW BOOMER?
In his book Boomer Nation, Steve Gillon states that the baby boom began in 1946 and ends in 1960, but he breaks Baby Boomers into two groups: Boomers, born between 1945 and 1957; and Shadow Boomers born between 1958 and 1964.[6]
I turned 62 in August. I applied in May, got my first check October 3rd. Now, if you think Motor Vehicle operations are bad, just wait until you deal with the SS folks.
I had to apply a second time, the old biddy didn’t know she had to hit “enter” and “save”, for my information to be in the system. Then, after all of this, you will get the final appointment via telephone. Still scratching my head about this issue.
My parents were married on VJ-Day and I issued forth nine months later. I have a better claim to “First Boomer” than does she. So there.
If you’re paranoid, you’re not alone. I fully expect that those of us who planned for retirement will be screwed as the government panders to those who couldn’t be bothered.
There is no trust fund - just IOUs promising to tax the living bejabbers out of everyone.
"I resent being lumped together with them."
yes, you're such a much better person than any of those 80 million people because you were born whenever you were born rather than when someone else was born. It has nothing to do with your actions or character or acts of charity or how you raised your kids. It's totally about when you're born. Except on the "I hate *insert state name here* threads". Then it's about where you live. That's the over-riding decision maker on what a great person you are on those threads. In fact, I've discovered over the years that if you were born in 1972 and live in Independence Missouri, you're practically of royal lineage. We should all simply toss our old California born butts into the ocean so there is pleeenty of yummy food and drink and cushy cushions for you because you are a better person since you weren't born at the time I was or live in a state with a coastline! That way the retirement plan some other generation waaaayyyyyy before ours came up with that is failing will be obeekee kadobeekee until you are ready to draw from it. Who cares if those 80 million people were REQUIRED to pay into it! Who CARES if they had little or even NO warning that there was a problem! Why didn't that 58 year old preschool teacher slash maintenance man know better?? They deserve to work. Better yet! All people who were born whenever or wherever you care to place the marker get to work an extra 25 years or until they die because all they have contributed to society has been, oh, the internet, a man on the moon, medical advances, little crap. So much less than the brilliant 18 year olds we have today. Specially that gem I saw this morning outside the donut shop pickin' his nose and smokin' a Winston wearing a bandana. Yeppers. Makes TONS of sense....../sarc
Note to self: add boomer threads to the deadly (stupid) thread list you want to avoid at all cost.
Here's a thought. 70 BILLION dollars every year is spent on illegal aliens. Rather than kicking working Americans around because of when they were born, how about we kick out CRIMINALS who weren't born here AT ALL???? That'll certainly solve the problem, huh?
If we had just elected save the planet Al Gore, it would be safely in a "lock box" right now.
The value of the dollar is getting so watered down that the purchase power of the payment is beginning to vanish.
Recipients will be purchasing a monthly supply of whiskey and cigarettes.
Well said.
The other solution is the one they did in the Children of Men book.
Thank you. I feel much better.
I don't think your paranoid at all. I think the feds would pull just about anything to get their hands on as much of our money as possible.
I'm beginning to think that burying our money in a desert is the only safe option anymore.
I’m a depression kid and have gotten back more than I ever put into SS.
The thing I was taught that the boomers weren’t is how to manage money.
As an unrepentant Xer, it certainly does amuse me that 'the first boomer' to apply for SS is a Hyphenated Woman former school teacher.
I love it when my stereotypes are borne out!
AMEN!
I remember when I was a child we weren't lumped in with them. Then, somewhere along the line those of us born in the early sixties became part of the Baby Boom. The Baby Boom is made up of people whose parents were in WWII. My parents were children during WWII. Some folks born in the early sixties had parents who were BORN during WWII. Guess the Boomers needed to add a few more to their ranks to make them seem even more important.
I AM NOT A BOOMER NOR WILL I EVER BE!!!! While those morons were wallowing in sex, drugs and protest I was playing with dolls. I came of political age during the Reagan years, not during Vietnam. I refuse to be categorized as one of them.
1960. I guess you really didn't have the opportunity to be 'lumped in' with those nasty selfish Boomers, did you?
” you will get the final appointment via telephone”
What’s that all about?
I filled out the aplication, mailed it in, and never heard from them again and got the check in the mail.
I was born in 63 so that makes me a shadow boomer I guess. I’ve long excepted that I am lumped in with the boomers as a constituency. Read many articles that place it at 64. What this means to me is that I’ll be one of the last men standing from this constituency long after it has sucked the gov’t tit dry and long after it has any political power in my twilight years. It behooves us 40 somethings to reform these government “handout to the aged” programs.
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