[MD] Down the road of mediocrity

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting Arlo Bensinger <ajb102 at psu.edu>:

> [Platt]
> That wasn't the original point which was about a payout of pension benefits.
> 
> [Arlo]
> At the risk of sounding like Rosanna Rosannadanna, "Never mind." I 
> thought we were talking about salary and wages.
> 
> But it does give me a bit of brief pause. Do smokers receive higher 
> pension payments because they have a lower life expectancy? I see a 
> scenario where, upon retirement, one completes a "life expectancy" 
> exam, and their pension payments are based on that.

Smokers pay higher premiums for life insurance which, of the cash value,
type, can be converted at retirement to annuity income. Thus in effect they do
pay more for pension benefits.

> Consider this USA Today article from last year. 
> (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-09-11-life-expectancy_x.htm)
> 
> "The longest living group, "America One," consists of 10.4 million 
> Asians, with an average life expectancy of 85, says the study in the 
> journal PloS Medicine. That's 27 years longer than the average 
> 58-year life expectancy of Native Americans in South Dakota."
> 
> Does this mean that a Native American's pension payment should be 27 
> times greater than that of an Asian?
> 
> Should the "poor whites in Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley with 
> an average life expectancy of 75" receive higher pension payments 
> than the "3.6 million low-income whites living in Minnesota, the 
> Dakotas, Iowa, Montana and Nebraska, with an average life expectancy of 79"?
> 
> On one level I can see the logic. You want to make sure someone's 
> pension lasts until they pass, but at the same time make sure they 
> get all of it back. But I can see some strange things happening too.

You can fine tune the whole katzamobule into absurdity. For example, shouldn't
smokers pay in less to social security since they won't live as long as
non-smokers? Or, shouldn't smokers be encourged to continue smoking so non-smokers
will get bigger s.s. benefits? "Fairnness" matters among kids on playgrounds, but
adults know (or should learn) that life can only be made fair by force.




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