The more times you hear that a particular turn of events is “unthinkable”, the more likely it is to take place and the SOONER it will take place. The more times you hear a radical change of policy described as “politically impossible” the more likely it is that the change is desirable and the more dire the consequences will be if the change is NOT made. The US government has what they call a “non-discretionary” budget which is largely made up of the major entitlement programs – welfare payments of all descriptions along with Social Security and Medicare. This portion of the budget exceeds all government revenues.
Most older people point out that they have paid into these schemes (especially social security), for their entire working lives. They avoid the knowledge that the money they paid in was spent by the government as fast as they paid it. There is nothing left that they paid in. Their “entitlements” are being paid by those who are still working, including their own children and grandchildren. They avoid another piece of knowledge even more assiduously. That is the knowledge that they have been conned. They bought the argument that there was no need to save because the government would do it for them. This is not a very “nice” way to put it, but there is no avoiding this. These people paid for their own servitude.
Today, that is what governments in the US and pretty well everywhere else are counting on. As long as people demand to be “helped” by government in return for turning a blind eye to what government is actually doing to them, the racket is safe. In this sense, people truly do get the government they deserve.
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