The ethical and economic aspects of old age pensions

The whole question of making State provision for the maintenance and support of all helpless and infirm persons who have survived the age of 65 years is too often, in controversy, clouded by the frequent use of the abstract term "State," as if it represented, in itself, a real, distinct, and independent entity.
The provision for the maintenance and support of all dependents of the community in any one year — whether children, helpless invalids, improvident persons., or the aged infirm — is purely an economic question, and depends, not upon an ideal State, but directly and entirely upon the products and services created or supplied by the independent active breadwinners of the community for the time being. Nay, more; every function of the State, as such, which absorbs time and labour, directly or indirectly, by means of general taxation, is wholly maintained by the usefully and intelligently directed services of the active breadwinners of the community for the time being.