"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Thursday, May 12, 2011

The Immorality of National Debt for Entitlements

"Monty" at Ace of Spades publishes a daily entry entitled "DOOM," which discusses, in suitably terrifying terms, the coming financial apocalypse that America seems unable to avoid, a disaster he attributes largely to government policies and, in particular, unaffordable entitlement programs (the big 3, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid).  After linking to a good post by Greg Mankiw (Harvard economics professor) about the "negative bequest" to our children that our national debt represents, Monty has this to say, which pretty much sums up what I think on the issue, and says it in a way that can't be improved:
It is morally wrong to force young people to make good on false promises made before they were even born. It is an outrage, a scandal, a shame on our society. A society that invests in the old at the expense of (actually, to the large detriment of) the young cannot survive. A caring and kind society cares for the weak and elderly and helpless; a dynamic and just society allows the young to grow and prosper on their own merits. If America is to prosper as a nation, the young must be given room to build families and careers. To build lives, without the onerous, crushing burden of debt run up by their forebears.

No comments:

Post a Comment