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The New York Times — Politics — Intergenerational Responsibilities — Elderly — Medicare — Health Insurance and Managed Care

What Old and Young Americans Owe One Another

America's old-age entitlement system has revealed the poverty of our political vocabulary and the need to understand our responsibilities to both the young and the old. Social Security and Medicare are transfer programs by which today’s workers provide funds to yesterday’s workers, who are now retir

1 min read
  • The latest round of rhetorical warfare about America’s old-age entitlement system has revealed the poverty of our political vocabulary.
  • Social Security and Medicare are transfer programs by which today’s workers provide funds to yesterday’s workers, who are now retired.
  • Thomas Jefferson had a knack for articulating liberalism’s best and worst impulses.
  • Madison’s response to Jefferson was a diplomatic yet unsparing evisceration of this way of thinking.
  • We owe something to prior generations because they have given us a lot.
What Old and Young Americans Owe One Another
Social Security and Medicare should bring generations together, not tear them apart.
The New York TimesBy Yuval Levin

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