But even seniors will ultimately suffer if younger workers don’t have the skills and infrastructure to be productive and support them.
Again according to The Urban Institute, state and federal governments spend $3 on seniors for every $1 on children. That spending has reduced poverty among seniors to 9 percent. Among kids, it’s 22 percent.
Politically, generational justice is difficult: Seniors and soon-to-be seniors vote. Children do not. Seniors have AARP lobbying for them as ferociously as the National Rifle Association does on behalf of assault weapons. Kids’ lobbies are much weaker.
Theoretically, Obama should be the champion of younger voters — the victims of generational injustice — because 60 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds voted for him, while 56 percent of seniors supported Mitt Romney.
But, weirdly, Obama is resisting entitlement reform while the GOP is riskily promoting it. It could be part of his crush-’em plan.
One would hope the sides would quit trying to do each other in, realize they have to live together and get busy solving America’s problems. Alas, it’s probably a fantasy.
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