Pulling up the ladder

[womzilla]

Here's a fact I hadn't known previously:

Catherine Rampbell at The New York Times... note that seniors—who are already beneficiaries of a government guarantee of health care—are disproportionately likely to oppose a government guarantee of health care.

(via)

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

"Seniors" is a pretty big group, and still includes a shitload of people Older Than Me, which is to say, children of the 1940s and '50s, not the '60s. As a group, those elders have long been much more conservative than the rest of the population. It can show in some unsettling ways: People who've flocked to Oregon's coastal towns to retire, for instance, have shown themselves distinctly unwilling to vote for tax increases to support public schools. I think this is part of that same phenomenon, coupled with a bit of a worry about underfunded Medicare and Social Security and a hefty dose of "I earned mine, suckers, you do the same."