"It is painful to see old age working itself to death, in what are called civilised countries, for daily bread...

pay to every such person of the age of fifty years ... the sum of six pounds per annum out of the surplus taxes, and ten pounds per annum during life after the age of sixty... This support, as already remarked, is not of the nature of a charity but of a right." Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man.

Hey... wait a second... does this sound like Social Security to anybody else? I mean, I know I slept or smoked pot all the way through History and Government... but I thought that was why they called it "High" School.