A Funny Bit of Entitlements Nonsense from the U.S. Navy
J.D. Foster /
Russell Beland is a Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy. His piece in the Washington Post over the weekend, “5 Myths About the Bust That Will Follow the Boom”, suggests the civilian leadership of the Navy may have too much time on its hands.
In brief, Beland’s thesis is that the widely accepted fiscal mess presented by the nation’s entitlement programs, in part brought on by the coming retirement of the baby boom generation, is in fact based on a series of myths and, in any event, “we’re out of time” to do anything about it. That, Dr. Beland, is so much bilge water.
First, Beland asserts that the retirement of the post-World War II baby boom generation is a demographic ripple. In fact, the ratio of Americans over age 65 to those of normal working age will almost double from 20.5 percent in 2005 to 37.2 percent in 2036, as the graphic below illustrates.
The balance of Beland’s relevant comments distill down to: Politicians don’t know what to do about the entitlements mess, which doesn’t matter because nothing would help, and in any event Congress won’t act. But, he counsels, “don’t be scared”. He’s wrong on all four counts. (more…)