[_h4xr]

Conservatives say they don't believe in evolution, but act like they do (in the sense they tolerate "animal spirits" in economics, a sexual division of labor, and racial disparities which may be genetic in origin). Liberals say they believe in evolution, but act like they don't. And our most destructive policies happen at the intersection of these two forms of hypocrisy.

A runner-up: "social security" is not the exact nature of the problem we face. Instead, the problem is the dependency ratio: old people can live off of million-dollar 401K portfolios and the proceeds from selling million-dollar houses, or live off of social security--in either scenario, the working population will be forced to accept lower available consumption (and low returns on their savings) for a given level of income.

[bokonist]

I'll go one step further than you on social security, and argue that even your take is not quite correct.

The so-called dependency ratio is not a real problem because most people in the economy no longer do productive work. Our standard of living is not bound by labor, but by resources (oil, lumber, arable land, etc). As 60 year old workers start to retire, no fewer resources will be produced, we're not going to produce less oil because 60 year olds retire. But we may consume less resources because fewer people are commuting to work and occupying climate controlled office spaces.