Conceptually, I like entitlements, like the NHS, which extend to an entire nation. The folks who keep the state afloat can point to these few tangible benefits in order to justify their involuntary investment. When all benefits are reserved for "the vulnerable", as right-on Brits now call people who don't or can't earn a living, countries cleave brutally into givers and takers, and each camp resents the other. But between top-heavy age structures and the ongoing sovereign debt crisis, few Western governments will be able to afford the unifying nicety of generous entitlements for the elderly. That means I'm likely to pay so much for Medicare that I might as well buy private insurance, and I will lose most of the funds I've "contributed" (it's hardly a choice) to Social Security. But what the hell — worse things could happen.
Still, woe to any politician who withdraws or restricts an entitlement once universal. Remember the unholy row about means-testing child benefit in Britain? That's nothing compared to the outrage that would meet means-testing of these programmes in the US. (Fortunately, most over-65s are not given to burning police cars.) Despite American horror of "socialised medicine", offloading your skyrocketing hospital bills onto the state at 65 is now considered a right. And it will come as a shock that all along Social Security "accounts" have been funded under false pretences: these are your earmarked retirement savings, growing and growing, waiting for you to get old. In truth, Social Security has always been just more taxes, and the statements of their "accounts" sent to working Americans periodically are no different than the paper fictions mailed to Bernie Madoff's clients. There are no accounts. The feds have already spent the money.
Cameron is likely to be punished at the polls for sensibly means-testing child benefit. Were Obama to utter a peep about means-testing both entitlements, he would deep-six his chances of re-election in a New York minute. Electorally, we reward people who lie to us. We ask to be condescended to. So maybe we can't blame politicians when that's what they do.
