Thursday, April 27, 2006

I'm with Arnold

Arnold Kling, that is, who writes:

The problem is that Social Security and Medicare payments are on course to rise to unprecedented levels as a percent of GDP....The solution, as I have argued for several years, is to raise the age of government dependency for workers now in their 30's and 40's. This is a painless solution, because (a) it does not affect anyone who currently receives or is counting on government entitlements and (b) it does not really affect people now in their 30's and 40's.

For people in their 30's and 40's today, the age of government dependency is only a promise. As of now, projected entitlement benefits to young workers are only promises that, under conservative assumptions, the government will be unable to meet.