I’ve always said that Govt has crowded out or co-opted charities but I don’t think I’ve ever written about it in terms of retirement. Thought about it, never wrote about it. Glad Michael Strain did.
Related:
It is hard to know what to make of changes in wealth inequality over time. To see why, consider this example: Expanded social insurance and safety net programs for lower- and middle-income households reduce the need for those households to accumulate assets. This exacerbates wealth inequality because it increases the gap in asset holdings between high-wealth and low-wealth households.
-Michael Strain ( The American Dream Is Not Dead (But Populism Could Kill It)
Why save when the Government is already taking it from me to feed a program that hasn’t adjusted for longer lives and higher payouts?
This is the “Government is gonna take care of me” mentality. A compressed version of it is now happening during this pandemic. EVERYONE is looking to the Government to bail them out. Have they not thought about where all that money is coming from?
The worst is when local, county, and State governments are all crying to the Federal Government to “give me more, give me more”!
Do they think we are simpletons and don’t realize that the only money that Feds can give them is the money it must first take from individuals (either now or in the future)? Or are they too cowardly to face up to the fact that they should just be telling us “WE are going to raise your taxes ourselves – because we can NEVER spend less of your money on your own behalf?
Every dollar we take from you is sacred for Government!
The government never believes, nor those inside it, that it needs to take the financial haircut it demands that we take. Want less inequality?
Make people pay for more stuff themselves – and they will find a way to get it.
Professor Don Boudreaux adds:
This point is excellent, and it implies that a contributor to wealth inequality is government.
So, for all of the Progressive / Socialists hammering the idea that the Government can fix a perceived problem, it turns out that the Government they worship is causing the problem they scream about.
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
