A dollar in pocket of someone who is not rich-is a dollar that could be in pocket of a rich person

[kpete]

Yes, it's Monday morning and Robert Samuelson again complains we are being cruel to our children. As in the past, he is not bothered by the likelihood that we will hand them a planet badly damaged by global warming. Nor is he upset that we might hand them a country in which the rules are rigged to give the rich a hugely disproportionate share of national income.

Nope, this is the Washington Post. He is upset that seniors will be getting Social Security checks averaging $1,500-$1,600 a month. And that it will be paying bloated prices for seniors' health care. In keeping with the Washington Post's fundamental philosophy that a dollar in the pocket of someone who is not rich is a dollar that could be in the pocket of a rich person, Samuelson is not upset about overpayments to wealthy doctors and drug companies, he's upset about seniors getting health care.

Those who actually give a damn about the well-being of our children and grandchildren know that on average their pay will be about 40 percent higher in three decades. If they pay two or three percentage points more of their wages in Social Security taxes, to support their own longer retirements, who gives a damn? We pay much higher Social Security and Medicare taxes than our parents and grandparents' generations.

If most people in our children and grandchildren's generation do not enjoy substantially higher living standards than we do it will be due to the fact that the Jeff Bezos of the world have managed to appropriate most of the gains from growth. Serious people therefore focus on policies to reverse the upward redistribution of income over the last three decades, however employees of Jeff Bezos, and apparently the Pew Foundation, try to divert people's attention to get them upset about the $1,300 monthly Social Security checks going to today's seniors.

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/robert-samuelsons-bad-math-on-generational-equity

[djean111]

1. Someone very close to me, when trying to explain the bizarre way in which her

well-to-do mother was trying get at me, said this - "If my mother had a million dollars, and you had a nickel, she would not be able to sleep until she had your nickel."

The 1% in a nutshell. Also, the explanation helped me cope. Better to know why someone is doing, or trying to do, bad things to you. IMO, etc.

[onehandle]

2. A rich person's head not in a guillotine-is a head that could be in a guillotine...