Social Security Will Be There For The Young But Medicare Costs Are A Big Problem

The graph in this article shows the growth in Social Security spending and Medicare spending as a share of government spending. It is pretty clear that Medicare spending is our real problem. Social Security can be fixed by a change in taxes or by modest changes in benefits. Medicare spending growth is primarily the result of healthcare price inflation. That can't be fixed without restructuring our inefficient healthcare delivery system. That is not politically possible.

I would like to stress another point in this article. Most of the young people in America do not believe that Social Security will be there for them when they retire. It is obviously not true, but it is widely believed by young people because they hear that all the time from the right wing media. That is not an accident. The intent is to weaken support for Social Security so that it can be privatized. The far right would like nothing more than to encourage warfare between the young and the old over Social Security. Its just another version of its divide and conquer strategy that permeates our politics.