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Summary and Reviews of Boomsday by Christopher Buckley

Boomsday by Christopher Buckley

Boomsday

A Novel

by Christopher Buckley
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  • First Published:
  • Apr 2, 2007, 336 pages
  • Paperback:
  • May 2008, 336 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

One of America’s most hilarious novelists and the bestselling author of Thank You For Smoking returns with a biting comedy about generational warfare.

Outraged over the mounting Social Security debt, Cassandra Devine, a charismatic 29-year-old blogger and member of Generation Whatever, incites massive cultural warfare when she politely suggests that Baby Boomers be given government incentives to kill themselves by age 75. Her modest proposal catches fire with millions of citizens, chief among them an ambitious senator seeking the presidency. With the help of Washington’s greatest spin doctor, the blogger and the politician try to ride the issue of euthanasia for Boomers (called “transitioning”) all the way to the White House, over the objections of the Religious Right, and of course, the Baby Boomers, who are deeply offended by demonstrations on the golf courses of their retirement resorts.

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Reviews

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After a slightly slow start during which Buckley introduces his characters, provides them with motive and generally lays the groundwork, Boomsday develops into a mischievously farcical tangled-web of generational warfare and political backstabbing, set against the background of the failing Social Security system and the general collapse of the American economy...continued

Full Review (602 words)

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Beyond the Book



A Short History of Social Security in the USA

  • The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 14, 1935.
  • In the 1960s the age when men were eligible for retirement benefits was lowered to 62 and health coverage was extended to Social Security beneficiaries aged 65 or older.
  • One in six Americans (45 million) receives a Social Security benefit, almost 1 in 3 beneficiaries are not retirees.
  • About 98% of all workers are in jobs covered by Social Security.
  • In 1985 the Social Security Trust Funds were moved "off-budget" so that the funds earmarked for the Social Security system would be tracked separately from the rest of the budget.
  • In 1996 the Social Security Trustees' Report stated that the Social Security system would start to run deficits in 2012, and the trust...

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