What about welfare for the middle classes, like social security, medicare, the home mortgage interest deduction, and so on?
The most consistent conservatives want to get rid of all of them. Social security and medicare, they say, are financially unsound, and are socially harmful because they lead people capable of saving for their own retirement and supporting their own parents to rely on the government instead. They could better be replaced by private savings, prefunded medical insurance, greater emphasis on intergenerational obligations within families, and other arrangements that would evolve if the government presence were reduced or eliminated. Other conservatives distinguish these middle-class benefits from welfare by the element of reciprocity; people get social security and medicare only if they have already given a great deal to society, and in the case of the mortgage interest deduction the “benefit” consists only in the right to keep more of one’s earnings. Still others try to split the difference somehow. As a practical matter, the reluctance of many conservatives to disturb these arrangements i
