The Guns of Autumn?: Age Differences in Support for Income Transfers to the Young and Old

<p>Data from the 1973 and 1986 General Social Surveys are used to test the hypothesis that elderly individuals favor public spending patterns that support their own interests and not those of children. Support for educational spending and welfare by the elderly is found to be less than within other age groups. Age patterns of support for Social Security spending are mixed. Responses to a series of "vignettes" depicting low-income families with young children and elderly women living alone showed that elderly respondents are slightly more supportive than average of transfers to low-income families with children and less suportive than average of transfers to low-income members of their own cohort. Elderly respondents appear more generous once their more frugal notions of what it takes to "get along" are taken into account. Support for transfers to young families is more closely relacted to income than age and is not consistent with the hypothesis that the elderly support programs that benefit themselves at the expense of programs that benefit the young.</p>