Interesting question:
Why Is Spending On The Elderly Protected, But Spending On Children Always On The Chopping Block?
The answer to this, not one mentioned by the author, is contained in this further question:
Who has the vote?
Interesting question:
Why Is Spending On The Elderly Protected, But Spending On Children Always On The Chopping Block?
The answer to this, not one mentioned by the author, is contained in this further question:
Who has the vote?
Parents have a vote.
A better question might be: of those who are eligible who is most likely to vote?
‘Kids will see an even smaller share of total spending in the coming years’
Delightful sleight of hand. I envision a 5 year old at the bank, cashing his thousand pound check.
The spending is on parents who can’t or won’t take care of their kids. It used to be that if parents didn’t take care of their kids, they would be removed from the home. 50 years ago, Libtards decided it would be better for the kids to stay and be raised in their dysfunctional homes, and get taxpayers to pay for it.
How’s that working out for you?
Most voters think that it is the parents’ responsibity to provide for their children. Most of the spending on the elderly is funded out of their past social security payments.
Even if voting was limited to the under-65s, there would still be more spending on the elderly.
Slightly off-topic but at what age is one considered ‘elderly’?
On the one hand I am a target of Saga holidays and could play in that ridiculous ‘walking football’ they keep banging on about in Barclays adverts, on the other hand I wasn’t particularly inconvenienced in making it round the Tough Mudder course near Winchester on Saturday and will be off up to the British Military Fitness equivalent run in Kent this weekend.
I would have bought you a celebratory pint if I’d known you were at the tough mudder, Mr C
@John Square
You too?
A fine day was had by all!
John77
They aren’t funded out of past social security payments. They are funded out of current taxation and social security payments. Their past contributions are treated as an entitlement to be paid today.
Isn’t it also that most OAP benefits aren’t means tested, so all OAPs are potentially effected by changes, while most child welfare payments go to parents who probably vote labour regardless (and thus neither party cares about them even slightly.
@AndrewC
I’m not daft enough to actually do the race- many of my friends are however, and I only live 10 minutes away.
I believe God invented Land Rovers for a reason 😉
AndrewC
“Slightly off-topic but at what age is one considered ‘elderly’?”
In the UK, generally 60+ now, but it can still be 65+. 75+ is geriatric. Meanwhile, generally, access to sheltered housing for “older people” starts at 55+.
‘Elderly’ is now non-PC. ‘Older people’ or ‘elders’ is the terminology of the right-on.
@ Theophrastus
British Masters Athletics has separate age-group categories for most events. I was mildly suprprised to learn that it includes an over-90 category for *the decathlon*.
@ Rob Harries
In the USA, which is what the article relates to, there is a separate Social Security Fund. The UK is different but the thread topic concerns the USA.
@john77 – is the SS fund not 100% invested in T-bills?
Tim, the conclusion you come to is far from original. Polly has been pointing this out for years.
The SS fund is fully spent. Benefits are paid from current revenue. Al Gore’s “lock box” was a lie.
In the UK, generally 60+ now, but it can still be 65+. 75+ is geriatric.
So, when do we get our first geriatric Prime Minister?
“Slightly off-topic but at what age is one considered ‘elderly’?”
At least 5 years older than me and I’m currently 58.
Well done on tough mudder. I have up on that sort of thing when I left the army, but I know what you mean about being treated as elderly despite being fit. I’m nowhere near J77 but run 15 to 20 miles a week and hate being considered as old.
@ RB – Churchill already made it?
Well I am over eighty and a curmudgeon.
I want all I can get and can be very noisy if I dont,.What you going to do about it?
Is this assertion even true? I know the poor English taxpayer forks out an amazing two hundred quid a week to keep me in the style to which I’m accustomed but given the amount of dosh I paid in for the forty five years I was working, it doesn’t seem excessive to me.
Still, once I pay my energy bills, (massively inflated to allow the today’s kids to pretend they’re saving the fucking planet), I can at least afford to eat. For now. So thanks chaps.
If you want the indigenous population to have more children, which is more effective?
More child benefit or lower state pensions?
Kevin B: Are today’s kids inflating energy bills so they can pretend to save the planet? I think it might be the politicians doing that, and as pointed out astutely above, it is the elderly that vote for them.
Runcie Balspune: when do we get our first geriatric Prime Minister?
I’d go further than Bloke in Berkshire and suggest that we’ve had our last geriatric prime minister.
Not just Churchill, I think that Wm. Gladstone was ‘geriatric’ for more than one of his terms as prime minister.