I spent the first several years of my life speaking an impenetrable patois of Bengali and Brooklynese; my desperate pleas for food or water were answered only by puzzled expressions and, in time, utter indifference. That I survived is a minor miracle. That I remain incomprehensible is a minor tragedy.
Kevin Drum writes, “I guess I might as well step up to the plate and confess to Reihan Salam that I don’t understand about half of what he writes.” Faced with this meandering monstrosity of a post, his best guess is that I’d scrap Social Security if I could. And he’s right-sort of.
THE RIGHT KIND OF REDISTRIBUTION: Redistribution can be a very good thing. Hayek thought so, and so does card-carrying libertarian Will Wilkinson. But to build a decent society, we need to go beyond cutting checks. We need to strengthen citizens and communities by giving them the tools to thrive. Social problems like the unusually high rate of black male unemployment require serious policy interventions, and that means spending serious money. And then there’s health care. Like a lot of conservatives, I think we need consumer-directed health care. Mandatory health insurance, as proposed by Ronald Bailey, is one way to get there. As Bailey suggests, that means subsidizing coverage for the poor-a very expensive proposition. Finally, there’s the fact that many Americans, despite working hard and playing by the rules in Bill Clinton’s memorable phrase, remain in poverty. That undermines the legitimacy of the market economy. When that happens, the threat of class warfare looms large. Wage subsidies for low-income workers are one way to solve that problem. (Ask Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review‘s wonk-in-chief.)
If we could alleviate the social isolation faced by the inner-city poor, secure health care for all Americans while preserving competition and preventing a government takeover, and see to it that hard-working parents can earn a decent wage, we’d go a long way towards healing deep divisions that have plagued this country for a long time. That’s worth a lot of money, particularly since a lot of these programs would eventually pay for themselves-by making us healthier, by fostering innovation, and by reducing crime. This is real demand-side conservatism: spend money now to save money later by nudging people in the direction of self-reliance.
SCRAP SOCIAL SECURITY: Alas, while it’d be great to buy every man, woman, and child a Segway (in homage to GOB, style icon), there’s only so much government can do apart from providing for the common defense. If asked to trade, I’d choose improving the life chances of the poor, making us all better off in the process, over transferring vast sums of money to the elderly.
Which is why I’d scrap Social Security if I could. Will Wilkinson breaks it down here. To the extent possible, encourage self-reliance. Create Personal Security Accounts, provide supplementary retirement benefits to poor retirees, and make sure that no one falls through the cracks. Just don’t tell me there’s a God-given right to wage-indexed benefits as far as the eye can see.
— Reihan
The Dish 