Krugman shoots down a zombie claim about Social Security and Medicare

Paul Krugman last month shot down a common zombie argument made as an excuse to cut benefits on Social Security and Medicare in Class Wars of 2012 New York Times 11/29/2012

Consider, as a prime example, the push to raise the retirement age, the age of eligibility for Medicare, or both. This is only reasonable, we’re told — after all, life expectancy has risen, so shouldn’t we all retire later? In reality, however, it would be a hugely regressive policy change, imposing severe burdens on lower- and middle-income Americans while barely affecting the wealthy. Why? First of all, the increase in life expectancy is concentrated among the affluent; why should janitors have to retire later because lawyers are living longer? Second, both Social Security and Medicare are much more important, relative to income, to less-affluent Americans, so delaying their availability would be a far more severe hit to ordinary families than to the top 1 percent.

Tags: austerity economics, barack obama, fiscal cliff, grand bargain, medicaid, medicare, social security