I think a lot of people refuse to be clear-eyed about entitlement programs. They cost money, and some portion of the population will indefinitely be a negative tax burden. Totally ignoring the moral issues here -- this means that you end up hitting breakpoints where entitlement programs stop making sense -- but of course -- with the right population, policy, and tax base, those programs can continue indefinitely. I seldom see any real calculation or discussion of these issues with regard to specifics, but instead just seem two camps who either want more entitlements and fewer entitlements, and seem to only argue from dispositional perspectives.

Livable.