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You literally have that backwards. The misinfo is that COBOL would be back-dating to 1875, as is made clear by the linked StackExchange thread and anyone else t

You literally have that backwards. The misinfo is that COBOL would be back-dating to 1875, as is made clear by the linked StackExchange thread and anyone else that has actually used COBOL. Regardless, people without an accurate age in the Social Security database should not be getting payments either, even if they are not actually 150.

NoPicklez 2y ago
Okay regardless of whether I had it backwards the intent of my post was still correct. That there may have been people in the system that were 150 years old, due to the COBOL language. And who says they actually were being paid, was that just assumed or did they find that people were inappropriately being paid? It is been circulated that there is an automated component that prevents that from happening if people are aged past 115 years old https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0202602578 https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0202602578 It is irresponsible to stand up in front of the Whitehouse and spew that there are people receiving social security payments that are 150 years old, without performing a formal inquiry into the matter or communicating the detail appropriately.
- skissane 2y ago
  > That there may have been people in the system that were 150 years old, due to the COBOL language. Yes, but this is the whole aspect that is misinformation: there is no evidence that (alleged) “150 year old social security recipients” has anything to do with COBOL. That appears to be simply some speculative and likely incorrect theory that some random cooked up, and people that don’t know any better are repeating as fact It is entirely possible that Musk/DOGE’s claims about this topic will turn out to be incorrect - but if they do, then I very much doubt that the actual reason, whatever it may turn out to be, will be due to any feature of the COBOL language (or the implementation of it SSA is using)
  - NoPicklez 2y ago
    The entire issue I have is that there was no substantiated evidence from Elon either, the public is left to speculate as to why. But Elon made a great headline for himself without any nuanced or substantiated view.
    - skissane 2y ago
      The solution to Musk’s misinformation isn’t anti-Musk misinformation Furthermore, while I wouldn’t be surprised if Musk’s claims turn out to be a exaggeration or distortion, they are an exaggeration or distortion of genuine internal government info - being weighed against uninformed speculation by Internet randoms
      - notahacker 2y ago
        Personally I'd be more worried by uninformed speculation by the unqualified internet randoms currently reallocating the government budget than uniformed speculation of internet randoms pointing out that given their representation of "genuine internal government info" makes no sense there might be multiple more logical explanations. I don't think the barriers to comment on internet forums should be higher than the barriers to running the country, but YMMV
ithkuil 2y ago
this is why the social media powered bullshit machine is so effective. Scenario: Chief executive president says that children are raped by unicorns. People react by saying, there is no way, unicorns don't exist. How do you know they don't exist? There are no animals with a unicorn-looking long twisted horn on their foreheads, some people respond. Somebody else points out that Narwhals exist and somehow we've reached the conclusion that people astonished with the president in chief are somehow just people with musk derangement syndrome and talking from their asses. In the meantime the extraordinary claim that started all this goes unaddressed and we're ready to repeat the cycle with the next inflammatory bait that takes no time to produce and drains all the energy of all those who want to make sense of it.

NoPicklez 2y ago

Okay regardless of whether I had it backwards the intent of my post was still correct. That there may have been people in the system that were 150 years old, due to the COBOL language. And who says they actually were being paid, was that just assumed or did they find that people were inappropriately being paid? It is been circulated that there is an automated component that prevents that from happening if people are aged past 115 years old https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0202602578 https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0202602578 It is irresponsible to stand up in front of the Whitehouse and spew that there are people receiving social security payments that are 150 years old, without performing a formal inquiry into the matter or communicating the detail appropriately.

skissane 2y ago
> That there may have been people in the system that were 150 years old, due to the COBOL language. Yes, but this is the whole aspect that is misinformation: there is no evidence that (alleged) “150 year old social security recipients” has anything to do with COBOL. That appears to be simply some speculative and likely incorrect theory that some random cooked up, and people that don’t know any better are repeating as fact It is entirely possible that Musk/DOGE’s claims about this topic will turn out to be incorrect - but if they do, then I very much doubt that the actual reason, whatever it may turn out to be, will be due to any feature of the COBOL language (or the implementation of it SSA is using)
- NoPicklez 2y ago
  The entire issue I have is that there was no substantiated evidence from Elon either, the public is left to speculate as to why. But Elon made a great headline for himself without any nuanced or substantiated view.
  - skissane 2y ago
    The solution to Musk’s misinformation isn’t anti-Musk misinformation Furthermore, while I wouldn’t be surprised if Musk’s claims turn out to be a exaggeration or distortion, they are an exaggeration or distortion of genuine internal government info - being weighed against uninformed speculation by Internet randoms
    - notahacker 2y ago
      Personally I'd be more worried by uninformed speculation by the unqualified internet randoms currently reallocating the government budget than uniformed speculation of internet randoms pointing out that given their representation of "genuine internal government info" makes no sense there might be multiple more logical explanations. I don't think the barriers to comment on internet forums should be higher than the barriers to running the country, but YMMV

ithkuil 2y ago

this is why the social media powered bullshit machine is so effective. Scenario: Chief executive president says that children are raped by unicorns. People react by saying, there is no way, unicorns don't exist. How do you know they don't exist? There are no animals with a unicorn-looking long twisted horn on their foreheads, some people respond. Somebody else points out that Narwhals exist and somehow we've reached the conclusion that people astonished with the president in chief are somehow just people with musk derangement syndrome and talking from their asses. In the meantime the extraordinary claim that started all this goes unaddressed and we're ready to repeat the cycle with the next inflammatory bait that takes no time to produce and drains all the energy of all those who want to make sense of it.