Baby Boomers Are the Richest Generation in History. Why Do Politicians Keep Spending More on Them?

Government Spending

You Are Paying for Retirees' Lavish Lifestyles

How America's old-age entitlement system became a sprawling lifestyle-subsidy program that steals from the poor to give to the rich.

Eric Boehm | 3.30.2026 1:50 PM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

As he celebrated the 50th anniversary of Social Security, then–Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill (D–Mass.) hailed the program's epic accomplishments.

In the days before Social Security was born, O'Neill said, "Life for the elderly is filled with uncertainty, dependency, and horror. When you get old, you are without income, without hope." The federal government's payments to retirees, he continued, meant that Americans no longer had to live in "fear and dependency" in old age.

It was a tidy summary of the conventional wisdom surrounding America's old-age entitlement state—which includes not just Social Security, but also Medicare and many other taxpayer-funded efforts to subsidize the supposedly nasty, brutish, and not-so-short lives of the over-65 crowd.

It is a narrative that deserves to be shoved off a cliff.

Today's retirees, most of them from the baby boomer generation, are the wealthiest cohort of Americans. The median household headed by someone over age 65 is far wealthier than the average household headed by someone in their late 30s.

Despite that, roughly 22 cents of every dollar the federal government spent last year was funneled to retirees via Social Security. Medicare spending accounted for another 14 percent. Many of those dollars were extracted from younger, poorer Americans. (The rest were borrowed and added to the national debt.)

A retired couple today might possess a robust retirement account and own a million-dollar home, but the government still acts as if they live in the poverty-stricken hellscape that O'Neill described. And as the old have gotten wealthier, the taxpayer-funded benefits have only gotten more lavish.

Social Security provides inflation-proof monthly payments, keeping retirees ahead of the curve even as working-age Americans struggle to make ends meet. In many places, seniors are gifted special exemptions from taxes on homes and vehicles that aren't available to younger Americans. Medicare, created to address seniors' medical needs, now offers such taxpayer-funded perks as discounted golf course fees, ski resort lift tickets, even pet supplies and pickleball equipment.

In short: Today's old-age entitlement system is not a last-resort guardrail against poverty and desolation. It is a sprawling, expensive lifestyle-subsidy program that steals from the poor to give to the rich—while also worsening the housing crisis and pushing the country toward a dangerous fiscal cliff.

It's one thing to believe that we have a moral, political, or economic imperative to protect the elderly from falling into poverty. But does that mean we should risk the future of the United States to pay for their vacations and their pets' flea shampoo too?

Medicare (Unfair) Advantage

San Diego County, California, is one of the wealthiest parts of America. Its population of 3.3 million boasts more than 100,000 millionaire households and a total economic output higher than that of Greece.

And when the retired denizens of San Diego County hit the links for an afternoon, poorer taxpayers working in far less desirable parts of the country help to pick up the tab.

That's because retirees in southern California who have enrolled in Clever Care's Medicare Advantage program get reduced greens fees at the Oceanside Golf Course (and five other courses in the area). Those types of "health and wellness" benefits have become increasingly common under Medicare Advantage, which was created in 1997 as an alternative to traditional Medicaid but is still funded by federal payroll taxes.

A provision tucked into a 2018 budget bill loosened the rules for those supplemental benefits to allow Medicare Advantage plans to offer any perks with a "reasonable expectation of improving or maintaining the health or overall function" of enrollees. Those supplementary benefits are available to anyone who has a chronic health condition—which isn't much of a barrier, since 95 percent of the Medicare population qualifies.

Those benefits often include services that have basically nothing to do with health care: things like transportation services, grocery discounts, pest control, and a wide range of "non-fitness" social club memberships, according to a 2019 memo published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

One Medicare Advantage plan available through Aetna advertises discounts for "pickleball fees, golf green fees, ski/lift passes and fees, bowling, yoga, stretching, dance classes," and more. A plan offered by Humana promises coverage for "pet food, pet toys, kitty litter, and flea shampoo."

More than 400 Medicare Advantage plans offered to pay for pet services in 2024, according to a survey by ATI Advisory, a research firm that tracks health care plans' offerings. More than 170 plans offered coverage for barbering and beauty services, while 137 offered travel services. In all, ATI estimates that more than 10 million older Americans had access to a Medicare Advantage plan that offered nonmedical "supplemental benefits."

All of that comes at a tremendous cost to taxpayers. Though it is operated by private companies rather than the federal government, Medicare........

© Reason.com

visit website