In Reply to: Our tax and benfits system are a big part. posted by mh on October 27, 2026 at 15:11:32
Medicare, the ACA (Obamacare), and Social Security can benefit younger people, too. By giving older Americans more financial security and the ability to retire earlier, these programs can help open up jobs and advancement opportunities for younger workers who purchase more stuff in the economy.
The bigger problem is that we cap the amount of income subject to Social Security taxes. As a result, middle-income workers can pay a higher percentage of their total income in Social Security taxes than very high-income earners.
I'm also okay with giving older homeowners some tax breaks. It would be a shame to force people out of homes they've lived in for decades simply because rising property values have made their homes unaffordable to keep.
However, we could address some of the resulting inequities through a higher inheritance tax and by eliminating the step-up in basis for inherited assets. That way, we can protect older people from being priced out of their homes without giving wealthy families such a substantial tax advantage when passing that wealth on to the next generation.
We basically have four major categories of spending in the federal budget:
Payments to older Americans through Social Security.
Health insurance for older Americans through Medicare.
Protection of older Americans’ assets through military spending.
Interest on debt accumulated by previous generations—money borrowed today that future generations will be responsible for paying back.
In many ways, we're asking younger generations to finance the retirement, health care, security, and accumulated debt of older generations.