This article in the New York Times has already engendered a lot of comment. Dean Baker says that the economics of the piece are a bit off (worth reading), but the real importance of the piece is the fact that governmental benefits are used most where they are condemned the most. Our blue state money is exported to red state beneficiaries, who condemn us for voting for it, and insist they don’t really want it, or at least don’t think anyone else should have it, all the while never considering doing without it. It contains some interesting character studies, such as this one about a tattoo artist who condemns his customers for getting benefits from which his family has benefitted and which he will obviously need himself:
Brian Qualley, 49, has a sister who survived a brain tumor but was disabled by its removal. The government pays for her care at an assisted-living facility. Their mother scrapes by on Social Security.
Mr. Qualley said that the government should provide for those who need help, but that too much money was being wasted. Mr. Qualley, who owns a tattoo parlor in Harris, north of North Branch, said some of his customers paid with money from government disability checks.
“They’re getting $300 or $400 tattoos, and they’re wearing nice new Nike shoes that I can’t afford,” he said, looking up from working a complicated design into the left leg of a middle-aged woman. “I guess I shouldn’t say it because it’s my business, but I think a tattoo is a little too extravagant.”
But Mr. Qualley said he did not want to reduce benefits for the current generation of retirees. Rather, he said his own generation should get less, because they have time to prepare. This is a common position among the young and healthy in Chisago.
Mr. Qualley said he was saving some money for retirement, although, he added, “I don’t have a 401(k) or anything like that.”
“I also have a job that I don’t necessarily ever want to — or have to — retire from,” he said.
What if his hands start to shake as he gets older?
“Actually,” he said, the electric needle falling silent in his hand, “it’s my shoulders and neck that bother me most.”
Saving for retirement, but no 401k? Social Security here he comes.
There’s a great graphic on line showing where the folks on government benefits live. I can’t reproduce it here but suffice it to say that it’s not unlike the soda/coke map I discussed in a recent post.
I come back time and again to the obvious solution:it’s time to re-open negotiations with the Confederacy.
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