Unlike Social Security, projected Medicare spending will dramatically outpace projected revenues in the next few decades. If nothing is done, Medicare will run huge deficits. Importantly, these projected deficits are not primarily driven by the shifting demographics of an aging population; rather, they are almost entirely driven by rapid growth in healthcare costs. In 2007,… Continue reading The reality of Medicare
Category: Entitlements
Social Security and confusion about savings
More than anything else, the unique dynamic surrounding money creates confusion in people. Whatever one thinks of Marx generally, his sociological theory of commodity fetishism seems true. In an economy driven by money and commodities, it is easy to forget the actual relationships that underlie production and consumption. For instance, people seem to think that… Continue reading Social Security and confusion about savings
Confusion about old-age entitlement programs
The Sunday edition of the New York Times ran a long piece on social safety net programs. There are a lot of gems in it, and I would recommend reading the whole thing. With that said, I was troubled by one aspect of the article. In parts of the piece, the author talks about financing… Continue reading Confusion about old-age entitlement programs
Notes on increasing age qualifications for Medicare and Social Security
The CBO released a brief earlier this week about the budgetary impacts of raising the eligibility age for Medicare and Social Security. As anyone would expect, raising the qualifying age for either program will reduce government outlays. Raising the Medicare eligibility age by two years will reduce government outlays on the program by 5 percent.… Continue reading Notes on increasing age qualifications for Medicare and Social Security
Worker-to-retiree ratio is meaningless for Social Security
For some reason, Social Security seems to get more spurious claims targeted at it than almost any other government program. Commentators mislead the public by calling it a Ponzi scheme, claiming it is insolvent, and strangely calling its treasury bond holdings worthless IOUs. These claims and many others made by the Social Security naysayers are… Continue reading Worker-to-retiree ratio is meaningless for Social Security