7 ms·

Nation's only Civil War pensioner collects $73 a month from VA (2017)

146 points by gscott 8y ago

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
steve19 8y ago
I would have thought the pension would be inflation indexed.
- caprese 8y ago
  the pension is older than inflation based monetary policy in the United States
  - dontbenebby 8y ago
    yes, we only moved off the gold standard in 1971 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - skookumchuck 8y ago
      For practical purposes we moved off of it in 1914. The value of the dollar steadily declined against gold from then on, despite the official exchange rate. The divergence was nearly 2:1 by 1929, and the run on the banks then was caused by this. The runs stopped only when FDR suspended payments in gold.
- benj111 8y ago
  Is it not in any way? $73 seems high for the mid nineteenth century, but low for today. (edit: Low to be inflation linked)
RickJWagner 8y ago
Absolutely amazing, that someone connected to the civil war in that way is still alive.
- dmix 8y ago
  "Connected to the civil war" is the key word here. She was born well after WW1 in 1930... which was 63yrs after the Civil War ended. Meanwhile: > The last surviving Civil War veteran died in 1956 at the age of 109, according to the VA. Similarly (and probably more interesting) is the 17th century perpetual bonds still paying interest from 370yrs+ ago: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/08/the-17th-century-bond-thats-still.html https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/08/the-17th-century-bond-...
  - est31 8y ago
    That's pretty cool. Kinda reminds me how often during border conflicts, modern country states legitimize their claims with arrangements made hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
    - maehwasu 8y ago
      Or how your EU4 spies need about a year to generate a claim on a neighboring province, thus giving you a casus belli.
      - usrusr 8y ago
        I always suspect "inspired by Paradox" when this kind of comment comes up. It's scary to see how much these games influence our perception of history, considering the permanent conflict of interest between accuracy and gameplay. On the other hand, those games are teaching models instead of "facts", which is much less prone to cause future conflict when the stuff taught is not exactly consistent with what others were told. Ever met one of those people who only know Hitler as heroic shatterer of colonialism? scary. All in all, Paradox is doing an amazingly good job, but we should not only be careful about how many hours we lose to them, we also need to be wary of putting too much faith into the models we absorb from them.
WC3w6pXxgGd 8y ago
He fought for the Confederacy and the Union? How does that happen?
jxramos 8y ago
I heard about such crazy arrangements before in the interview with the author of this book https://www.hoover.org/research/high-cost-good-intentions-history-us-federal-entitlement-programs https://www.hoover.org/research/high-cost-good-intentions-hi.... He did a good job studying the history of Federal entitlements stemming from the Civil War and how that select targeting of veterans slowly and steadily expanded with the years. There was this interesting entitlement creep if you will. If I recall correctly it started with soldiers who died in battle to leave a pension or something behind for their widows. Then some soldiers close to that qualification got the next dibs, those who were wounded I believe, and eventually it became everyone who served in the Civil War, and kept creeping to descendants of soldiers or something along those lines. Pretty nuts, but does capture well that aspect of human nature.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
Luc 8y ago
In Belgium there’s a woman now in her thirties who gets a WW1 survivor’s pension. A buried shell was set off by the heat of a campfire, tearing into her leg.
massivecali 8y ago
I see this as a reminder of why you shouldn't remove an option from a form just because you find it unlikely or improbable.
bronson 8y ago
The article without the google survey ads: https://outline.com/bjSx3m https://outline.com/bjSx3m
aphextron 8y ago
Let this be a reminder to just how not long ago the civil war really was. My father’s grandfather was born a slave. He has childhood memories of older relatives who remember the passage of the 13th amendment. That intergenerational trauma is still very real and fresh for blacks in this country. Keep this in mind whenever you wonder why systemic inequality still exists.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- lisper 8y ago
  Economic injustice can easily span multiple generations. I am where I am today in no small measure because my parents could afford to provide me with a stable environment and a house full of books to read. I never had to work to help support the family, never had to deal with a family member addicted to drugs, never had to worry about drug gangs roaming the street that I lived on, never had to worry about someone judging me negatively or someone in authority harassing me because of the color of my skin. None of that was my doing. It happened simply because I was fortunate enough to be born to educated white parents. Slavery was one of the greatest evils ever perpetrated by mankind. The 13th amendment may have begun the process of making it right, but that process is very far from finished.
  - LifeLiverTransp 8y ago
    Yes, thats why the chinese, colonized by the japanese are still heavily supressed - oh, victim narrative break down... My family has shizophrenia as curse, and a part of them is all high on this narrative. Its always some conspiracy, some evil external force, and due to them running with this view through the world- and the world reacting, it becomes a self fullfilling prophecy. There is never that one point, where somebody says "Now im really free, and responsible for all what happens". Get help. Real help. Not this eternal victim narrative which allows for barricading in ones missery. Not that it holds up to daylight anyway, now that the former victims, become the new colonial masters.
    - 8y ago
joker3 8y ago
The last Revolutionary War widow died in 1906 (https://blog.genealogybank.com/last-revolutionary-war-widow-receives-final-pension-in-1906.html https://blog.genealogybank.com/last-revolutionary-war-widow-...). She was receiving pension payments until then. A 109-year old former slave's daughter voted for Obama in 2008 (https://www.npr.org/sections/newsandviews/2008/10/109yearold_daughter_of_slave_v.html https://www.npr.org/sections/newsandviews/2008/10/109yearold...). The entire history of the US is covered by the first woman's husband, the first woman, the second woman, and a baby born in 2008.

146 points by gscott 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

steve19 8y ago

I would have thought the pension would be inflation indexed.

caprese 8y ago
the pension is older than inflation based monetary policy in the United States
- dontbenebby 8y ago
  yes, we only moved off the gold standard in 1971 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - skookumchuck 8y ago
    For practical purposes we moved off of it in 1914. The value of the dollar steadily declined against gold from then on, despite the official exchange rate. The divergence was nearly 2:1 by 1929, and the run on the banks then was caused by this. The runs stopped only when FDR suspended payments in gold.
benj111 8y ago
Is it not in any way? $73 seems high for the mid nineteenth century, but low for today. (edit: Low to be inflation linked)

RickJWagner 8y ago

Absolutely amazing, that someone connected to the civil war in that way is still alive.

dmix 8y ago
"Connected to the civil war" is the key word here. She was born well after WW1 in 1930... which was 63yrs after the Civil War ended. Meanwhile: > The last surviving Civil War veteran died in 1956 at the age of 109, according to the VA. Similarly (and probably more interesting) is the 17th century perpetual bonds still paying interest from 370yrs+ ago: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/08/the-17th-century-bond-thats-still.html https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/08/the-17th-century-bond-...
- est31 8y ago
  That's pretty cool. Kinda reminds me how often during border conflicts, modern country states legitimize their claims with arrangements made hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
  - maehwasu 8y ago
    Or how your EU4 spies need about a year to generate a claim on a neighboring province, thus giving you a casus belli.
    - usrusr 8y ago
      I always suspect "inspired by Paradox" when this kind of comment comes up. It's scary to see how much these games influence our perception of history, considering the permanent conflict of interest between accuracy and gameplay. On the other hand, those games are teaching models instead of "facts", which is much less prone to cause future conflict when the stuff taught is not exactly consistent with what others were told. Ever met one of those people who only know Hitler as heroic shatterer of colonialism? scary. All in all, Paradox is doing an amazingly good job, but we should not only be careful about how many hours we lose to them, we also need to be wary of putting too much faith into the models we absorb from them.

WC3w6pXxgGd 8y ago

He fought for the Confederacy and the Union? How does that happen?

jxramos 8y ago

I heard about such crazy arrangements before in the interview with the author of this book https://www.hoover.org/research/high-cost-good-intentions-history-us-federal-entitlement-programs https://www.hoover.org/research/high-cost-good-intentions-hi.... He did a good job studying the history of Federal entitlements stemming from the Civil War and how that select targeting of veterans slowly and steadily expanded with the years. There was this interesting entitlement creep if you will. If I recall correctly it started with soldiers who died in battle to leave a pension or something behind for their widows. Then some soldiers close to that qualification got the next dibs, those who were wounded I believe, and eventually it became everyone who served in the Civil War, and kept creeping to descendants of soldiers or something along those lines. Pretty nuts, but does capture well that aspect of human nature.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

Luc 8y ago

In Belgium there’s a woman now in her thirties who gets a WW1 survivor’s pension. A buried shell was set off by the heat of a campfire, tearing into her leg.

massivecali 8y ago

I see this as a reminder of why you shouldn't remove an option from a form just because you find it unlikely or improbable.

bronson 8y ago

The article without the google survey ads: https://outline.com/bjSx3m https://outline.com/bjSx3m

aphextron 8y ago

Let this be a reminder to just how not long ago the civil war really was. My father’s grandfather was born a slave. He has childhood memories of older relatives who remember the passage of the 13th amendment. That intergenerational trauma is still very real and fresh for blacks in this country. Keep this in mind whenever you wonder why systemic inequality still exists.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
lisper 8y ago
Economic injustice can easily span multiple generations. I am where I am today in no small measure because my parents could afford to provide me with a stable environment and a house full of books to read. I never had to work to help support the family, never had to deal with a family member addicted to drugs, never had to worry about drug gangs roaming the street that I lived on, never had to worry about someone judging me negatively or someone in authority harassing me because of the color of my skin. None of that was my doing. It happened simply because I was fortunate enough to be born to educated white parents. Slavery was one of the greatest evils ever perpetrated by mankind. The 13th amendment may have begun the process of making it right, but that process is very far from finished.
- LifeLiverTransp 8y ago
  Yes, thats why the chinese, colonized by the japanese are still heavily supressed - oh, victim narrative break down... My family has shizophrenia as curse, and a part of them is all high on this narrative. Its always some conspiracy, some evil external force, and due to them running with this view through the world- and the world reacting, it becomes a self fullfilling prophecy. There is never that one point, where somebody says "Now im really free, and responsible for all what happens". Get help. Real help. Not this eternal victim narrative which allows for barricading in ones missery. Not that it holds up to daylight anyway, now that the former victims, become the new colonial masters.
  - 8y ago

joker3 8y ago

The last Revolutionary War widow died in 1906 (https://blog.genealogybank.com/last-revolutionary-war-widow-receives-final-pension-in-1906.html https://blog.genealogybank.com/last-revolutionary-war-widow-...). She was receiving pension payments until then. A 109-year old former slave's daughter voted for Obama in 2008 (https://www.npr.org/sections/newsandviews/2008/10/109yearold_daughter_of_slave_v.html https://www.npr.org/sections/newsandviews/2008/10/109yearold...). The entire history of the US is covered by the first woman's husband, the first woman, the second woman, and a baby born in 2008.