3️⃣ Bullets
one article 📰 + one podcast 🎧 + one song 🎵
📰 Article: Testimony on Social Security’s Finances | Congressional Budget Office | CBO projects that the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund will be exhausted in 2032 if Congress does not act. Under current law, benefits would need to be reduced to match incoming payroll tax revenues, resulting in an estimated 7% cut in 2032 and roughly 28% annual reductions thereafter. The report attributes the gap primarily to an aging population, longer life expectancies, and spending growth that outpaces revenue growth. This is one of those problems I remember reading about in 2010 when I first started getting interest in public policy and remember thinking “there’s no way we won’t solve that problem in the next few years, everyone sees it coming”. Well, here we are.
🎧 Podcast: Old-igarchy: How the Elderly Conquered American Power | Derek Thompson | For most of American history, old age often meant poverty, but programs like Social Security and Medicare, along with medical advances and rising asset values, have made older Americans one of the wealthiest and most influential groups in the country. In his book Gerontocracy in America, Samuel Moyn argues that the U.S. is increasingly governed by an "Old-igarchy," where wealth and political power are concentrated among older generations. In this interview, he discusses the rise of gerontocracy, its impact on younger Americans, and potential reforms to rebalance power across generations.
🎵 Music: Culling Line | All Them Witches | ATW is a Nashville-based rock band that blends blues, psychedelic, and doomy-metal into a classic yet somehow modern and distinctive sound. Their latest record, House of Mirrors, was just released and this is my favorite track from it.