Читать книгу Disinherited - Diana Furchtgott-Roth - Страница 9

PART I

STEALING FROM THE YOUNG TO ENRICH THE OLD

America’s national debt is $18 trillion and climbing. Social Security and Medicare, mammoth programs that provide generous benefits to seniors, consume 40 cents of every dollar spent by the federal government, a proportion expected to increase. When future spending obligations are stacked up against expected tax receipts, America owes $205 trillion—more than 12 times our GDP—a figure that dwarfs the oft-cited $18 trillion number.

Today’s young people will pay the bills when they inevitably come due, while today’s seniors enjoy a comfortable retirement. Working people contribute 15.3 percent of their paychecks to payroll taxes that only partially fund these programs. If Washington does not act to reform entitlements, it will mean either a much higher tax bill for millennials or a steep reduction in benefits.

At the state level, runaway pension plans for public-sector employees pose a serious threat to state budgets. As well-connected public-sector unions fight against any changes to generous pensions, it is the poorly represented taxpayers, the young people just starting their careers or those who cannot yet vote, who will end up footing the bill.

Taxes and unfunded deficits are just one side of the story. Government programs such as the Affordable Care Act rob the young in other ways. Young people, especially young men, have seen their health-insurance premiums soar under the new health-care law. Regulations that artificially hold down the premiums of their parents leave young people to pick up the slack.

New mandates on the labor market will also harm young people when they take effect. In 2016, small businesses that do not offer health insurance as a benefit will need to pay the post-tax equivalent of $60,000 in fines to hire a 50th full-time worker. This will slow the growth of hiring and discourage millennials from seeking a job. Youth labor-force participation in America is already at historic lows—only 55 percent of young people are in the workforce.

While many government programs—Social Security, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act—have the admirable goal of caring for the elderly or helping the uninsured, they also have unintended consequences. The unseen losers, those who silently shoulder the costs of these programs, are America’s young. The following section explains how government steals from the young to enrich the old—and how we can redesign policies and programs to work for everyone.