Transfers of wealth

It really does seem to me that the government has been spending less and less tax payer money to actually do something and more and more money to transfer money between different groups in society. Still, I did not realize quite the scale of the change until I read this:

In 1960, national defense was the government’s main job; it constituted 52 percent of federal outlays. In 2011 — even with two wars — it is 20 percent and falling. Meanwhile, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other retiree programs constitute roughly half of non-interest federal spending.

That is pretty impressive. With how large the generation going into retirement is right now and how large the debt already is, I imagine the next decade will get a whole lot worse before it gets better.