Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to re: Dogma

Dogma, or just reality?
Tom Brosz — (archived)

"When government tells you an entitlement isn't going to cost much, or will be cheaper than private alternatives, remember that all the evidence of history tells you the exact opposite will be true."

When appropriately filtered through the right ideological lense, and drawn from select sources and taken out of context. Sure.

I can buy that. So, in what "context" can entitlements, or for that matter, most other government programs, be considered to have ended up costing less than its proponents predicted?

Just a few questions:

Is the statement at the top of this post true or not?

Is the Social Security program right now what its proponents intended it to be?

How about Medicare and Medicaid? Medicare and Medicaid costs are still skyrocketing. The cost predictions of its proponents back in the 1960s were blown clean out of the water in less than a decade.

If the eventual bloating of these programs had been accurately projected, would either of them have ever made it through the legislature? What would Johnson have thought if he had been informed that the costs of Medicare and Medicaid would eventually absorb over 20 percent of the entire Federal budget? What would anyone have thought if they had known that someday Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would, between them, have cost more than the entire discretionary spending budget, including defense?

My economic philosophies get sneered at, and that's okay, I guess. But it should be pointed out that people who think about economics like I do had no problems at all predicting from day one that entitlement costs would shoot through the ceiling, while the more "nuanced" economists always seem surprised when the laws of supply and demand raise their ugly head.

A final question, and the most important one:

When another major new entitlement is proposed--and believe me, it will be--are the patterns of the past going to make any impression on those who have to decide if we are going to adopt it?

Speaking of which, have you seen this yet?

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (75 posts)