The best thing we could have done in '08-'09 would have been to offer Social Security and Medicare to all workers over '60 at full benefits. This would have opened jobs for younger workers and given us the injection of public money to offset losses in the private sector.

If what you are saying is true then workers don't need the incentive of potential destitution and starvation to prod them into meaningful employment. With most actual production of goods and many services offshored overseas the link between productivity and earning is already broken and the primary job of Americans is now "consumer". Such a position only needs some source of currency/demand to maintain the status quo and that can be provided with our sovereign fiat currency.