Sunday, March 06, 2011

Home Truth

Mark Steyn:

Almost every problem facing the Western world, from self-detonating jihadists to America’s own suicide bomb — the multi-trillion-dollar debt — has at its root a remorseless demographic arithmetic. In the U.S., the baby boomers did not have enough children to maintain their mid-20th-century social programs. I see that recent polls supposedly show that huge majorities of Americans don’t want any modifications to Medicare or Social Security. So what? It doesn’t matter what you “want.” The country’s broke, and you can vote yourself unsustainable quantities of government lollipops all you like, but all you’re doing is ensuring that when, eventually, you’re obliged to reacquaint yourself with reality, the shock will be far more devastating and convulsive.

Si se puede, baby.

3 comments:

Gino said...

i've been saying for a while already: without breeding, we cant have this stuff.

we should means test social security based upon how many kids you have.

Bike Bubba said...

I'm all for Gino's idea. Actually, I'm even more for the idea of ending Socialist Insecurity over the next couple of decades and going to "sucks to be you if you don't prepare for when you can't work anymore."

It sounds cold, until you realize that the alternative is "sucks to be you because even though you planned for retirement, the demographics are such that investment values collapse and you're up a creek."

Mr. D said...

It sounds cold, until you realize that the alternative is "sucks to be you because even though you planned for retirement, the demographics are such that investment values collapse and you're up a creek."

This is why they call it the cold, hard truth, BB. Either we fix things now while we still have a few options, or we don't and face really bad choices down the line.