Fabian Way Stations (Joshua Cohen & Brink Lindsey)

[Always Cynical]

"We have to come to grips with what kind of welfare state we want to have. Do we really want the overwhelming majority of our redistributive activities to be directed towards people over 65?"

I really respect Brink Lindsey, but one must question his "death panels" logic here.

Way back in 1976, when the country was 200 and the current 65-year-old was just 31 years of age, 8.9 cents out of every $1 in total U.S. income went to the top 1 percent of American households.

In 2007, when the current 65-year-old was a more wizened 62 years of age, 23.5 cents out of every $1 in total U.S. income went to the top 1 percent of American households.

Nice money, if you could make it. An increase of 14.6 cents out of every $1 in total U.S. income for the top 1 percent of American households in a 31-year period.

Now, in 2010, after top 1 percent of American households have seen their piece of the American Pie grow by more than two and a half times over little more than three decades, we hear about "income redistribution", "the welfare state", and, yes, "senior citizens" and "death panels".

Hasn't the "income redistribution" already occurred, namely from 1976 to 2007? Or are we merely to assume that anyone who declined to go to Wall Street or a hedge fund, to lobby a Congressman, or to move their money into an S-Corp or offshore during those halcyon days is simply a member of the "welfare state"?

What about the guy who ran a small auto body repair shop during this period, made $60,000 or $70,000 a year, paid his taxes, put his kids through school, and then saw his retirement investments plummet or simply die in 2007 and 2008? Is he some sort of Communist-Fascist-Socialist-Marxist for questioning what happened? Or, worse yet, for wondering why the top 1 percent made so very much while he worked hard, ran an honest business, served his client base well, and then saw his retirement nest egg break two or three years ago?

Perhaps only the Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers, the over-leveraged, under-responsible investors like Sam Zell at Tribune, and the lax tax enforcement policy types in the White House and Congress worked hard and deserved their financial gains of the past 31 years?

And, if this is truly the case, why should anyone run a small auto repair shop, operate a plumbing business, or work as a home electrician in 2011 - especially, if in another 31 years, the top 1 percent of American households sees its total share of U.S. income again grow two and a half times above its 2007 level?