28 votes

The world’s oldest woman was 122 when she died. A researcher believes that her daughter assumed her identity in the 1930s to avoid inheritance taxes.

Posted by Deimos
Tags: gerontology, france, jeanne calment, senior citizens, researchers, oldest person, humans, theft.identity, taxes, fraud.tax, records.world, author.eli rosenberg, source.the washington post, long read, paywall.hard
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/01/05/was-worlds-oldest-women-lying-about-her-age-when-she-died-one-researcher-thinks-so/

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4 comments

  1. Deimos
    Link
    Came across this story in Matt Levine's "Money Stuff" newsletter today, because he found it hilarious that a major human achievement might have just been a tax dodge all along. The actual full...

    Came across this story in Matt Levine's "Money Stuff" newsletter today, because he found it hilarious that a major human achievement might have just been a tax dodge all along.

    The actual full report is readable here on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329773795_Jeanne_Calment_the_secret_of_longevity

    9 votes
  2. [3]
    thisonemakesyouthink
    Link
    Ooh. I don't know why I'm so intrigued by this. It really gets you thinking, how many other "facts" that we know of are lies or myths. Every historical artifact or attributed work could be...

    Ooh. I don't know why I'm so intrigued by this. It really gets you thinking, how many other "facts" that we know of are lies or myths. Every historical artifact or attributed work could be fabricated if it's possible for someone to become a whole new identity so easily.

    5 votes
    1. [2]
      Soptik
      Link Parent
      I just remembered this when I was reading your comment. It's Orwell, 1984.

      And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable what then?

      I just remembered this when I was reading your comment. It's Orwell, 1984.

      4 votes
      1. thisonemakesyouthink
        Link Parent
        Good quote, thanks for sharing. We never read Orwell in school. I feel like I really should get around to reading his stuff. It sounds very good and relevant to modern society.

        Good quote, thanks for sharing. We never read Orwell in school. I feel like I really should get around to reading his stuff. It sounds very good and relevant to modern society.

        1 vote