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Fri 25 Aug, 2006 06:44 pm
A passage is as below. Could you tell me what "will be bummed" means, please? Thanks.
Peter Jennings: Good evening, everyone. We're going to begin tonight with the future of social security, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board said today there was a crisis coming. He told the Congress that it must consider cutting or delaying retirement benefits that many Americans will come to depend on. Alan Greenspan said the federal budget was over-committed and could not afford to maintain current benefits once all the Baby Boomers begin retiring. There have been warnings before, of course. But this, among other things, was a monkey wrench tossed right into a presidential campaign. Here's ABC's Bob Jamieson.
Bob Jamieson: It was a stark warning from the Federal Reserve Board Chairman: Congress must act now to head off a looming crisis in social security.
Greenspan: We will eventually have no choice but to make significant structural adjustments in the major retirement programs.
Bob Jamieson: Greenspan gave Congress two options: either cut benefits by changing the cost of living adjustment or delay the retirement age in the future so Americans will work longer.
Greenspan: Â…dramatic demographic change is certain to place enormous demands on our nation's resources, demands we almost surely will be unable to meet unless action is taken.
Bob Jamieson: The first wave of 77 million baby boomers hits the minimum retirement age in four years and reaches 65 in seven years. As more Americans draw social security, fewer workers will be paying into the system. And economists said today, the question is not whether there will be cuts, but who will bear the burden.
Stephen Gallagher, economist: The second half of the baby boomers are the ones that are probably going to see the biggest reduction in their benefits.
Woman 1: Really itÂ… it is a kind of human tragedy for some of us who are really dependent on that benefit for retirement.
Man: I would be quite unhappy.
Woman 2: I am still working. I've worked since I was young. I will be bummed.
Quote:Man: I would be quite unhappy.
Woman 2: I am still working. I've worked since I was young. I will be bummed.
Both blue statements mean exactly the same thing. To be bummed about something is to be unhappy about it.
You may also run across the usage 'bummed out', still means unhappy.
Joe(hardly ever bummed)Nation