Robert Samuelson challenges the viability of the increasing costs to support America's welfare state. And some programs like social security have "strayed from their original purpose." The future will be interesting. There is a point where there will not be enough people paying taxes to support the welfare state.
If you doubt there’s an American welfare state, you should read the new study
by demographer Nicholas Eberstadt, whose blizzard of numbers
demonstrates otherwise. A welfare state transfers income from some
people to other people to improve the recipients’ well-being. In 1935,
these transfers were less than 3 percent of the economy; now they’re
almost 20 percent. That’s $7,200 a year for every American, calculates
Eberstadt. He says that nearly 40 percent of these transfers aim to
relieve poverty (through Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance
and the like), while most of the rest goes to the elderly (mainly
through Social Security and Medicare).
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