Robert Samuelson hits the nail on the friggin head. Seriously folks — let’s stop talking about redistributing wealth and start talking about generating wealth. How do we grow the pie?
You’re being played for chumps. Barack Obama and John McCain want your votes, but they’re ignoring your interests. You face a heavily mortgaged future. You’ll pay Social Security and Medicare for aging baby boomers. The needed federal tax increase might total 50 percent over the next 25 years. Pension and health costs for state and local workers have doubtlessly been underestimated. There’s the expense of decaying infrastructure — roads, bridges, water pipes. All this will squeeze other crucial government services: education, defense, police.
Couldn’t agree more. What should we do? Here’s what Samuelson proposes. Again, I couldn’t agree more.
What should you — the young — do? First, get angry — at the media and think tanks for discussing this problem in misleading euphemisms (for instance, the problem is not an “entitlements crisis”; it’s excessive benefits for the old); at the candidates for exploiting your innocence; and at yourself for your gullibility.
Next, start picketing AARP. It’s the citadel of seniors’ political power and the country’s most powerful “special interest.” It wields a virtual veto over roughly two-fifths of the federal budget. Your activist groups ought to be there every day with placards reading “Give Us Generational Justice” or “Get Off Our Backs.” Ask direct questions of federal candidates about what benefits they’d cut, which they’d keep and why.
You need to appeal to the shame and guilt of older Americans by reminding them that their present self-absorption is not a victimless exercise. Only if older Americans act on their rhetorical pledges of worrying about their children will the political climate change. If you — the young — don’t stand up for yourselves, believe me, your elders and your politicians won’t.
Anyone want to grab a sign and head down to AARP headquarters?
October 23, 2008 at 8:07 am |
Agreed that this is a major concern. But here’s the thing: Politicians will never do anything about a crisis that’s 10-15 years in the future.
For a perfect example of this, look no further than climate change. Even though scientists had been predicting this for years, nobody really started to get serious about it until the effects became obvious to anyone who watches the nightly news. One might argue that we’re still not serious enough.
The same will be true of Social Security and Medicare. It will remain the third rail of politics until it’s such an imminent catastrophe that we can no longer ignore it.
So I would revise Samuelson’s conclusion. Instead of “get angry”, I’d say “prepare to get angry when the time is right”. Getting angry now won’t do any good because no one’s listening. But getting angry once the issue has come to a head (and showing up with reasonable solutions) will enable us to seize the moment and get something done.