I wanted to link to Josh Barro’s piece because it illustrates how the tradeoff between government support for the poor and government support for the old is showing up in the current political campaign.

The political triumph of the old over the poor is an instance of “Director’s Law.” In my post “Milton Friedman: Celebrating His 100th Birthday With Videos of Milton” I quote Milton’s definition of Aaron Director’s Law:

Director’s Law is, that almost invariably, government programs benefit the middle income class, at the expense of the very poor and the very rich. 

Robert J. Samuelson touches on the related tension between government support for the young and government support for the old in his article “The Withering of the Affluent Society.”