I know it’s going to become insolvent and it will need to be cut. I’m planning my retirement assuming I only get 50% of what I’m entitled to. But there’s a big leap from that to “we should abolish all welfare programs”
Discussion
The point of the original post was no amount of efficiency is going to make up for the deficits these programs introduce. I’m of the opinion these programs will need to be unpopularly cut in order to bring them inline with something sustainable. I’m not opposed to some kind of welfare necessarily. But it has to be sized to something. But politicians haven’t been proactive in resolving. It basically manifests as a government entitlement bubble. Just because people are dependent on them today with the choices they make doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be drastically cut and people make different choices. Without these entitlements grandparents lived with their children, now some people have used their social security and Medicare to live independently, that’s seen as a good. But it’s not something you would see without the government debt proping it up. It just may not be sustainable.
We all know what's going to happen. They will be paid out in dollars, but the dollars will be worthless. And somehow people will say this is better than free markets because sometimes there are recessions and they're painful, and we must overcome these "animal spirits". Socialism works, until it doesn't. What do they teach in Keynesian/Communism schools?
"In the long run, we're all dead" - so just kick the can down the road and don't worry about it