But alas Economix continues to publish the musings of Casey B Mulligan who is taking up the defense of the youth of America against us disgusting wrinkly old people.

The good professor waxes indignant over the fact that we now spend about $40,000 per year per geezer. That would be $21,000 average Social Security payment plus $12,000 Medicare spending - note to Casey B. at least part of this spending goes to younger people with disabilities - and $7,000 by the good professor's estimates on Medicaid and other need based medical programs.

He graciously declines to count government cheese distributed through senior centers.

All told this means that we spend a lot on the old and, in the professor's little world, this means that the old are much better off than the young. Because if a stay in a nursing home costs as much as a cruise to the Bahamas then it must generate at least as much psychic satisfaction.

As Wonks Anonymous languishes in a nursing home in the final stages of dementia he will try to remember that.

Now Wonks Anonymous is the first to acknowledge that there are cheaper and more humane ways to deal with the problems caused by terminal debilitating illnesses. Wonks Anonymous has asked his family to make arrangements for a humane overdose of an appropriate drug. These arrangements are, however, incompatible with our Judeo-Christian traditions, and should be strictly voluntary at any rate.

But Wonks Anonymous supposes that Professor Mulligan is not in favor of organized death panels. He would simply cut off most health spending on the old and let old people and their families make the decisions themselves. And then maybe the young could step in with the new income that they enjoyed from tax cuts to fund private charity to provide a safety net for indigent seniors like the one that Medicaid currently provides.

Mother Teresa comes to America.