"There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos"

[RufusTFirefly]

42. Like many programs, Social Security had a number of precursors

Every once in a while there's a truly new idea. But not often.

Even though it attempted a Keynesian approach, Townsend's plan was noble but unsustainable. It proposed to give $200 a month to every citizen 60 or older. The Keynesian idea is that you had to spend that money; you couldn't save it. Theoretically, that requirement would stimulate the economy, generating a multiplier effect. Unfortunately, it would've been almost impossible to enforce. The cost of making sure that everyone actually spent his or her money would've been astronomical.