One of the nation’s top political commentators believes a sense of entitlement among Americans makes it difficult to change government programs that will collapse under the weight of a Baby Boomer generation on the verge of retirement. And George Will explained Sept. 20 that this mentality “makes us rebel against the slightest costs and frictions of life.” Details…
Will, whose syndicated column is published regularly in more than 300 newspapers across the United States, visited Elon University this week for the Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture Series, which brings some of the nation’s most accomplished writers and journalists to campus.
Will’s message to a packed McCrary Theatre was a simple one: As government itself grows, it inflames public desire for more services, while discouraging people to plan and save for the future. But the system will run out of money when the number of people who need those services outnumber the number of workers whose tax money fund them.
Advances in medicine, and by extension, life expectancy, mean Americans today live longer than every before. And a larger percentage of their life is spent in leisurely activity once they retire from work and start drawing Social Security.
“It is the elderly who have the biggest stake in the American government,” Will said before delivering a brief history lesson on Social Security, and the era in which it was founded. “In 1935, almost no American retired. Americans worked until they dropped or dropped shortly thereafter.”
The “lapsed” political philosophy professor, with careers at both Michigan State University and Harvard University, said government might try to increase taxes against workers and industries to pay for the coming burdens of a large elderly population.
He warns against that, though, for higher taxes can stifle the continued economic growth that has been a hallmark of American society in recent generations.
“We can be like Canada where everything is free and nothing is available,” Will said. “I wouldn’t recommend that. Be very careful tampering with successful industries.”
Will, 66, was born in Illinois and was educated at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.; Oxford University; and Princeton University, where he received his doctoral degree in politics. He is the author of 12 books, including seven collections of his columns. He and his wife life in the Washington, D.C., area.
He discussed other topics as well during his hour-long presentation, attended by students, faculty and university supporters alike. Such topics included baseball – Will is an avid fan of the sport – and the Iraq War, which he believes the Bush Administration grossly mishandled. He also boasted that he knew who would win the 2008 presidential election.
“I know, but I won’t tell you,” he said. “It’s safe to say it’s not the 22nd Amendment that’s preventing George Bush from a third term.”
