charts_and_numbers

The US taxes younger workers and gives their money to wealthier retirees

Scoresby

> I wonder if some of this is a consequence of creating a program (social security) that can't pay for itself so as demographics change and also as people live longer, a tax burden is placed on younger populations that nobody really thought through.

100%. Even in my very mainstream macro courses, the instructor described social security as a straight up Ponzi scheme. Essentially, they never expected birth rates to collapse and can't survive that for long.

This happened, I'm pretty sure, because Boomers have always been the largest voting cohort and people vote themselves free stuff.

> I wonder how we could do this better while still supporting old folks

One idea I have is something analogous to child support, but for old people. Basically, before the state starts paying for an old person's care, their family has to pay for it. Boomers are fairly shameless, but even they might have some reservations about blatantly looting their kids and grandkids.