Social Security and Medicare have been transferring money from low-earning young people (who don't pay income [tax] but are hit by the payroll tax) to increasingly affluent old people.If this is true, as I expect it is, then the politically untouchable entitlement system is forcing the working poor to subsidize the middle and upper middle classes.The Democrats, perhaps following the polls and focus groups, have been protecting these entitlement programs that have done more to increase income inequality than the Reagan and Bush tax cuts put together.
Next Barone make a point with which I suspect most of us would agree:
Much of the increased inequality comes from the huge increases for those in the top 1 percent of earners. But we wouldn't be better off if Steve Jobs had never existed.
