You and me both, brother

Here are comments from Delphi CEO Steve Miller who related the pension problems at the now-bankrupt auto parts maker with the towering obligations of federal entitlement spending:

My worries go beyond the auto industry. What I am describing is also embedded in our debates over Social Security and Medicare. The overwhelming voltage in the political third rail of touching these entitlements will forestall corrective action for years, but the problem will only grow. I fear something like inter-generational warfare, as young people increasingly resent having their wages reduced and taxed away to support social programs for their grandparents’ income and health care concerns.

The analogy that Miller makes is that a business cannot long endure when a premium must be passed on to consumers to pay for retirees, some of which spend more time in retirement than in labor. By the same coin, expanding entitlements cannot be dumped on younger workers without incurring resentment, especially when there’s little chance that they will see those benefits in the future.