The ever-provocative Randall Parker pointed at this site / chart that gives us taxes and transfer payments on an ethnic- and age-based basis:

Some quick, really cynical observations:

1) Rent seeking in action - Our future (the children) don't vote. Our past (the eldery) has and does. Hence +20K in benefits if your household is "with Elderly" and -5K if you are merely "with Kids."  Ambrose's dictionary might consider this a form of demographic suicide.

2) I wonder what Al Sharpton believes the proper mix for the "Difference Per Person" column is / should be?     It will be a very cold day in hell if / when someone ever pins him down and forces him to express himself this way --> "The Just solution is for white people to contribute at least $1000 of their income to raise black incomes by $1500".   Oh boy.  

'Tis a core difference between the private and public sectors that it's odd in the latter for one to pause and ask "just how much will that cost me?"  "Your Fair Share" would no doubt be the response.

Now there are valid reasons why the numbers skew in one direction or another and I'm the FIRST to point out that really high level aggregate stats like this are almost always misleading (the same mistake the folks who correlate GNP with which prez was in office to imply direct causality).   In some ways, the elderly have fewer caretakers and more expenses than children.   Blacks and Hispanics are poverty stricken at higher rates than whites and Asians.   Nevertheless, I am surprised by the magnitude of these numbers...