Why Oldsters Aren't To Blame For Social Security And Medicare

Social Security and Medicare: Twin Disasters Loved by All Age Groups

Gary North

©2013 GaryNorth.com

One of the political facts of life which most Americans do not want to consider is this: young people are in favor of Social Security. This has always been the case.

Politics are settled at the margin. There's no doubt that older people, at the margin, are a very large swing vote. But they have never had anything like the majority. This was especially true in 1935, when the New Deal voted to set up the Social Security system. The nation was a young nation at that point, because the birth rate had been high almost from the beginning of the nation.

The appeal of Social Security was this: the state would guarantee retirement. The state was going to substitute its power to collect taxes from workers, and it would use this power to guarantee everybody a free lunch. Only the free lunch would start at the age of 65.

Overwhelmingly, the public got on board. Overwhelmingly, the public is still on board. The Social Security system has always been a promotion directly aimed at existing workers. This is because existing workers are the overwhelming majority of the voters in this society.

A lot of people blame the old folks for having acted as a political special-interest group to make certain that it gets its money. But understand this: this special-interest group, like all special-interest groups, never had the ability on its own to get this legislation passed. Furthermore, this special-interest group does not have the votes in order to sustain this continuing drain on the Treasury without the help of the overwhelming majority of people who are paying into the program.

Read the rest of the article at GaryNorth.com.


For more resources from GaryNorth.com on the disasters that Social Security and Medicare, see here.