Nathan Smith calls our current seniors welfare queens:
many recipients of Social Security today really do live in regal style. Seniors are far wealthier than younger people. In 2001, the median net worth of over-65s, at $92,399, was more than 12 times greater than that of under-35s, at $7,428. They have slightly lower cash incomes, on average: elderly men's income were 74% of the national average, and elderly women's 69% of the national average. However, the elderly get to participate in Medicare, and many elderly have paid off the mortgages on their homes.
Smith even reminds us of left-wing economist Lester Thurow's infamous quote:
"History will record that Lee Kuan Yew got it right in Singapore with his Provident Fund (self-financed social welfare benefits), while Bismarck got it wrong in Germany with his social welfare system of intergenerational transfers. In Singapore every person must contribute 20 percent of their wages to a personal savings account where it is matched by 20 percent from employers. The account's investments are half managed by the individual and half managed by the government and can only be used for health care, education, housing, and one's old age. Taxes are not levied on the young to pay for the old. The old live on what they have been forced to save and the additional saving that they have voluntarily done."
It's very difficult to reform a program where so many of the beneficiares have the right to vote.
TechCentralStation
