09 November 2013

Social Security Reprise

For anyone who thought my comments of a year and a-half ago to the twin effects that Social Security is not a property right (there's no trust in the trust fund, and never has been) and that its unfunded liability dwarfs the current federal deficit can go here to read what Walter Williams had to say in the November 6 edition of The Richmond Times-Dispatch: "The only way Congress can send checks to Social Security and Medicare recipients is to take the earnings of a person currently in the workforce." Shades of my observations about young folks fighting back.

Williams's suggested political solution, however, is a pipe-dream: "Older American, who own most of the political clout, must lead the fight to get Congress to do something about entitlement programs." Don't hold your breath. The old are just as selfish as the young. (There's no fool like an old fool.)

More likely is Williams's ultimate sentence: "The alternative is continued belief in the Social Security and Medicare myths and the heck with future generations." Until, of course, the U.S. borrowing capacity runs out and then "death panels" might turn out to be more than a bit of Palin-esque political agit-prop.

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