Harvard Poll: Stressed-Out Gens Y and Z Heavily Favor Biden

New poll from Harvard University's Institute of Politics shows that Americans aged 18-29 are unhappy with the government and favor Biden over Trump by 2-1.  Most young people think that government is not doing what it is supposed to do:

Although fewer than 10% believe the country is working as it should be, a majority of young Americans prefer reform over the replacement of current institutions. When asked whether they believed America’s current institutions were working as needed, only 8% of young Americans agreed. A majority (51%) of them believed reform to present institutions was necessary to address existing problems, and about two in five preferred replacing all institutions and creating an entirely new model.

The problem is that Biden is going to be giving them more of the government that they don't see as working.  A vote for Biden is a vote to keep the deep state in place.  There is a reason that 94 percent of Washington voted for Clinton--because she was going to maintain status quo big government.  And in the fall, likely 94 percent of Washington will vote for Biden (or whomever the Democrats nominate in the end) for the exact same reason.  You don't get change or reform by putting the same people in charge.

Stimulus update

Young people are the ones that are going to bear the economic costs of the response to the coronavirus pandemic.  If the costs were to be levied on the boomers or older generations, I'm sure that Congress would have spent it more judiciously.  :

https://twitter.com/novogratz/status/1253426742326226944

Two Minnesota economists see the costs to young people of the coronavirus shutdown far outweighing the benefits:

From the Star-Tribune.  Author is the Chair of the Economics Department at te University of Minnesota:

Are these benefits of a continued shutdown sufficient to justify the horrific costs it imposes, especially on the young? I believe not, and instead see continuing our current policies for much longer as generational theft.

Preschool children are losing irreplaceable schooling shown to be crucial in cognitive development. K-12 students are losing schooling shown to have huge returns to their future earning abilities. Undergraduate, graduate and professional students are delaying their productive careers.

The currently unemployed are disproportionally young and losing not only paychecks, but extremely valuable on-the-job experience. Further trillions are being added to the national debt, to be paid by future taxpayers, the young.

There's an opportunity here for a great study on the effect on young people when the shutdown is brief versus of longer duration.  All else equal, young people in Colorado, Oklahoma, Georgia and states where the shutdown was brief should have fewer long-terms effects (career, educational attainment) than young people instates where the shutdown was extensive (New York, New Jersey, Michigan).  This should be particularly important for those at important life turning points like college graduation. 

https://www.startribune.com/a-month-into-mass-quarantine-what-now/569933882/?refresh=true

Biden wants to skew spending even more heavily towards the old.

In 2019, Medicare accounted for over one-third of the federal deficit.  That is, spending on Medicare exceeded premiums and taxes by $300 billion.  That gap will be bigger still this year.  Now Biden wants to make the program even more costly.  Elections have consequences.   

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/11/832025550/bidens-health-play-in-a-covid-19-economy-lower-medicares-eligibility-age-to-60

How Bad a Deal Is Social Security For Young People?

Really bad.  According to a piece appearing in the Wall Street Journal young Americans will only get back 75 cents for every dollar that they put into social security.

First, the country's existing entitlement programs are not just unaffordable, they are also profoundly unfair to those who are taking their first steps in search of opportunity. Social Security is one example. According to Social Security actuaries, the generational theft runs deep. Young people now entering the workforce will actually lose 4.2% of their total lifetime wages because of their participation in Social Security. A typical third-grader will get back (in present value terms) only 75 cents for every dollar he contributes to Social Security over his lifetime. Meanwhile, many seniors with greater means nearing retirement age will pocket a handsome profit. Health-care spending through Medicare represents an even less equitable story.

Britain Shortchanges Young People

This week's Economist points out that it is the young that are bearing the costs of austerity measures while at the same time, politicians keep making entitlement programs for the elderly sweeter.

Britons below retirement age are indeed in it together. The working-age poor are being pinched by a cap on welfare payments. Wealthy parents have been stripped of child benefit. University tuition fees have rocketed. Everyone is paying more VAT. But austerity seems much less austere if you are old. Pensioners, who fared notably well in the boom years, have been coddled in the bust.

Whereas public-sector salaries and benefits for working-age people are set to rise by a miserly 1% a year over the next few years, pensions have been “triple-locked”: they increase by average earnings, inflation (currently 2.7%) or 2.5%, whichever is higher. Perks such as free bus passes, free television licences and winter fuel payments have not been touched (although Mr Osborne is daringly pondering whether to axe fuel subsidies for Britons who have retired to sunny Spain).

This week another gift arrived. At present old people who need long-term care for conditions like dementia must pay for much of it. Some have to sell their houses and run down their savings until they are left with £23,250—at which point the state steps in. Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, finds this intolerable. On February 11th he announced that the state will take over when people have paid £75,000 towards their own care. And nobody will be forced to sell their house.

Yes, Definitely

Nick Gillespie: State of the Union: Will Obama Tell Young People He's Screwing Them Big Time? Probably not, but they should listen up anyway.

if the proprietor of the most open and transparent and clean-smelling administration of all time wants to make some real news, he might speak honestly to the segment of the American electorate that he is screwing over six ways to Sunday: Young voters between the ages of 18 and 29. Listen up, kids! Your parents are robbing your futures blind and you're chumps enough not only to go along but to say - like the adorable title orphan in the classic baby boomer musical Oliver! - please, sir, I want some more.