You make the assumption that negative wealth is okay when you’re young.

I don’t agree with that.

Some say that time is wasted on the young. They have so much of it that they don’t know what to do with it. I say that wealth is wasted on old people, for the same reason.

A society should invest in young people. They spend the money back into the system and shape the future they have to live in by how they spend it. Old people do none of that. They just tuck it away, and clutch their pearls.

I’m grateful to live in a society that has welfare to pay young people to study, so they don’t start their lives in debt. I hardly used it myself, but I’m still happy to pay my taxes knowing that our society has raised the bar so that nobody is forced into negative wealth just to get their life started. Poverty is low, homelessness is low, education is high. This is the society that I want to live in and pay for.

Some would call it socialism. It’s not really, and it isn’t perfect, but whatever it is, it’s surely better than a casino where the house always wins, also known as the American Dream.