Terms Which Have Disappeared

[BlueTrain]

Bronze age is certainly used in a different sense than golden age which remains metaphorical if anything.

There used to be a trend of naming periods of time after English monarchs, Victorian, Edwardian, “Restoration” (to an extent), Georgian etc.

Of course, there’s a slight problem trying to call the current era as Elizabethan.

Technically, none of those terms could be used in American after the revolution. We no more had a Victorian age than Russia.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And then there's "The Plastic Age," a term from the 1920s which had nothing whatsoever to do with the increasing popularity of thermosetting chemical resins and polymers. The phrase referred instead to that time in a person's life, usually the late teens and early twenties, when their character and personality are at their most malleable, and subject to influences that will eventually fuse into their personalities to form their permanent adult self. A popular novel of the time dealing with the wild depredations of college life was a best seller in the mid-twenties using the phrase as its title, and that novel went on to become a feature picture starring Clara Bow.

 

[OldStrummer]

"Pension." Oh, it's still a term being used, but when was the last time you ever heard about a company offering one?

I had a meeting with a financial planner earlier this week. We were talking retirement planning. Even he admitted that companies no longer offer pensions, opting instead for 401(k) plans or do-it-yourself (e.g., IRA) planning.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Pension." Oh, it's still a term being used, but when was the last time you ever heard about a company offering one?

I had a meeting with a financial planner earlier this week. We were talking retirement planning. Even he admitted that companies no longer offer pensions, opting instead for 401(k) plans or do-it-yourself (e.g., IRA) planning.

Public or private, very few pensions were fully funded (both companies and governments kicked that can down the road to the next generation). When that became obvious in the '80s, companies started moving away from them. It took unto the '00s for governments to try to do the same.

Now, instead of promises they can't or won't keep, companies match a certain amount of your money, put it in one of those accounts you referenced and that's that. It's more honest, but clearly feels less secure (but those pensions, it turns out, weren't always that secure anyway). Governments are also, slowly, trying to do the same.

 

[vitanola]

Public or private, very few pensions were fully funded (both companies and governments kicked that can down the road to the next generation). When that became obvious in the '80s, companies started moving away from them. It took unto the '00s for governments to try to do the same.

Now, instead of promises they can't or won't keep, companies match a certain amount of your money, put it in one of those accounts you referenced and that's that. It's more honest, but clearly feels less secure (but those pensions, it turns out, weren't always that secure anyway). Governments are also, slowly, trying to do the same.

Well, actually, in the case of quite a few large firms (after certain changes made to pension regulations in the Reagan years) pension plans were conveniently determined to be "overfunded". This made these firms attractive targets for leveraged buy outs, after which the "excess" assets in the pension plan were used to retire some or all of the LBO debt. Oddly enough, 'most all of these plans were subsequently deemed to be underfunded. Who ever could have foreseen THAT? Not a few such plans ended up being dumped on the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation. Quite a number of pensioners received some pretty close haircuts.

 

[3fingers]

Public or private, very few pensions were fully funded (both companies and governments kicked that can down the road to the next generation). When that became obvious in the '80s, companies started moving away from them. It took unto the '00s for governments to try to do the same.

Now, instead of promises they can't or won't keep, companies match a certain amount of your money, put it in one of those accounts you referenced and that's that. It's more honest, but clearly feels less secure (but those pensions, it turns out, weren't always that secure anyway). Governments are also, slowly, trying to do the same.

I am in a public pension system that is considered one of the best in the country. It is currently 95% funded and they are working toward 100%. The state of Illinois (look up thieving pirates for a reference point)has been trying to figure out a way to steal the money from it for years in spite of the fact that it is not a state pension. The system has always been able to stop them and I pray that continues to be the case. I realize how blessed I am to have it.

 

[Zombie_61]

The phrase "Golden Age" has been around for a very very long time, pretty much as long as there have been civilizations to look back gauzily on their past. In the Era with which we concern ourselves, there was a popular religious magazine called "The Golden Age," which referred to a postulated post-millennial era in which Millions Now Living Will Never Die. Unfortunately, that didn't pan out...

I wouldn't define this as "unfortunate". The planet is already over-populated; can you imagine how much worse it would be if only two or three previous generations hadn't died?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, we can only hope that the planet is bigger on the inside than on the outside.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Well, we can only hope that the planet is bigger on the inside than on the outside.

Good time for a return to the Hollow Earth theory.

 

[HudsonHawk]

"Pension." Oh, it's still a term being used, but when was the last time you ever heard about a company offering one?

I had a meeting with a financial planner earlier this week. We were talking retirement planning. Even he admitted that companies no longer offer pensions, opting instead for 401(k) plans or do-it-yourself (e.g., IRA) planning.

I work for Big Oil and still get a pension. It’s still offered to new hires today, though the current one is not as good as mine. I think most major oil companies still offer a pension, but I’m not positive And whether or not it remains solvent by the time I retire remains to be seen.

 

[Fading Fast]

Well, actually, in the case of quite a few large firms (after certain changes made to pension regulations in the Reagan years) pension plans were conveniently determined to be "overfunded". This made these firms attractive targets for leveraged buy outs, after which the "excess" assets in the pension plan were used to retire some or all of the LBO debt. Oddly enough, 'most all of these plans were subsequently deemed to be underfunded. Who ever could have foreseen THAT? Not a few such plans ended up being dumped on the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation. Quite a number of pensioners received some pretty close haircuts.

Yup, I remember all that. I also remember a state I lived in deciding its gov't pension plan was sufficiently funded (don't remember if they used the term "overfunded") so that they could "borrow" from it for a year for "emergency" needs. The "borrowing" went on well after whatever initial "emergency" passed and now the fund is at (last I saw) some 60+% funded.

Also, several states "suspended" payments to their pension funds for this or that reason - all because the pension funds were in "great shape" and the "suspension" would be temporary (which it rarely turned out to be). Another trick governments and companies used is "adjusting" the expected rate of return up so that it would make the fund look better so they could cut payments to the funds in current years (of course, those rosy projects rarely came true).

The problem, IMHO, is that some/many corporate executives and government officials are mendacious and will say or do anything to get money for something this year by creating a problem years in the future for some other executive or official. A company can increase their earnings now (and increase compensation for executives by doing this) and government officials can spend on some program today (which will help get them reelected now) by using fuzzy math or other deceptive machinations that robs the pension fund today, but whose damage won't show up until many years in the future (on someone else's watch).

Another trick (and court cases proved this out) is many companies converted their pension plans into 401k (defined contributions) and used advantageous-to-the-company math when they did this. This happened to me and we got additional money after the court case. The one good thing about defined contributions (401-ks, etc.) is that the money in it is yours - legally - it isn't based on a future promise in some "plan" run by corrupt corporate or gov't officials. That said, all the investment risk sits with you as well - but it always did anyway, it was just hidden in a pension plan that made it feel more secure than it was.

 

[Fading Fast]

I am in a public pension system that is considered one of the best in the country. It is currently 95% funded and they are working toward 100%. The state of Illinois (look up thieving pirates for a reference point)has been trying to figure out a way to steal the money from it for years in spite of the fact that it is not a state pension. The system has always been able to stop them and I pray that continues to be the case. I realize how blessed I am to have it.

My fingers are crossed for you - it sounds solid. My girlfriend's parents - both in their 80s - have also been fortunate to have had been in successful pension plans (one private, one public). Of the next generation though - their kids and their kid's spouses - only one out of four even has a pension plan and that one is looking a bit shaky.

 

[BlueTrain]

I wouldn't define this as "unfortunate". The planet is already over-populated; can you imagine how much worse it would be if only two or three previous generations hadn't died?

I take it you've never driven across the country.

 

[Zombie_61]

I take it you've never driven across the country.

No, I can't say I have. The closest I've come in recent years was a trip to Alaska in 2011 where the state's population averages one person per square mile, so I have done some traveling and know first-hand that there are large areas in the U.S. (and around the world) that are currently "undeveloped". But if, to paraphrase Miss Lizzie's post above, "millions had never died" those areas would probably now be as populated and congested as most big cities. And, in the process, we humans would likely have used up most, if not all, of the planet's natural resources to sustain that population. As it is, statistics have shown the average human life expectancy has doubled in the last 100 years alone, adding to the "problem" of sustenance. I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that I have no desire to live in a world in which those "open spaces" are nothing more than a faded memory. Nature has it right--everything that lives will eventually die, and that's how it should be.

 

[BlueTrain]

It is certainly true that our population has doubled in my lifetime but at the same time, we have become more urbanized, essentially de-populating much of the country. That's not to say there are no problems. Solutions have a way of creating their own problems, too. The shorter average lifespan in the past was due more to high infant mortality, too. My grandmother was born in 1879 and lived into her 90s, although she outlived two of her children. It was not unusual for parents to lose their last born, presumably because the mother was at the end of her child-bearing years. At any rate, you don't hear a lot about the population bomb these days but instead, about the other one.

 

[tonyb]

It isn't that the rural areas have depopulated. It's more that they haven't seen the increases in populations that the urban areas have. Even the most sparsely populated states have seen population growth. The only state to have seen a drop in population in recent years is Michigan, and even there it wasn't much of a drop.

As one who has driven across the country many times and who has yet to tire of the wide-open spaces out here in the West, I can offer that I would consider living in a more rural area if my dewy-eyed bride and I had any realistic scheme for making our living there. Modern communications and transportation technologies have the potential for making life in more remote locales considerably more feasible for more people. I'll not likely live long enough to witness such a shift, but younger people very well may.

 

[scottyrocks]

At any rate, you don't hear a lot about the population bomb these days but instead, about the other one.

This sounds like a disguised attempt at modifying a common term to serve a political end.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

This sounds like a disguised attempt at modifying a common term to serve a political end.

A popular scare-mongering title from 1968 by Paul Erlich, The Population Bomb. A Thomas Malthus for the Flower Power Age.

 

[Upgrade]

Dusted off a copy of the Kingston Trio’s “Desert Pete”.

It reminded me of how “prime the pump” still exists as a metaphor, but the literal meaning of needing to pour down water to moisten the leather has disappeared.

 

[BlueTrain]

Is the expression "lifts and separates" still used to try to sell something? Don't remember what it referred to. Maybe something to do with shocks absorbers or something.

Regarding the population bomb and other disasters waiting to happen, there seem to be two schools of thought. One believes and sometimes apparently hopes for something that will end civilization in our lifetime, in a year, ten years (fantasy budget periods) or 40 years (which is to say, forever). The other one is hopelessly optimistic. We'll have a car that flies in the garage or maybe even something more fantastic, a car that drives itself. We'll have lots of leisure time because production is so efficient that no one works 40 hours a week. We'll use our new-found leisure time to drive into the city (on virtually empty highways) to go shopping. The whole family will play board games while the car does the driving.

The reality is always different.

The world did not end on Tuesday, 395, when the Roman Empire fell apart. And the only good thing that happened after the Berlin Wall fell was that Viking river cruises had more places to go. The Black Plague didn't end civilization, nor did the flu epidemic of 1918. The obesity epidemic is threatening us now but I wouldn't worry. Go ahead and eat. Much of that depends on how you define civilization, of course.

I have heard that cars that drive themselves exist, although I don't think I've noticed one. But no one drives into the city to go shopping. There's no place to park! Even if they did, families don't play board game anymore. They're all absorbed in studying the palm of their hands. I really don't understand it but I see it all the time. Surprisingly, Dick Tracy's wristwatch radio with a TV screen hasn't appeared yet but surely it won't be long. Maybe if they just made it a little bigger so people could see things better. Practically everyone wears glasses now, anyway.

Everything's up to date around here. We've come about as far as we can go.