Not getting into whether it’s a ponzi scheme or not but I give very little credit to an article that starts out with that example but doesn’t include the example of the millions who pay into it for a lifetime but die prior to getting anything.
That is an excellent point. It would be possible for a program like Social Security to to pay people who live long enough a certain amount more than they put in, using money taken from people who payed in for awhile but didn't live long enough to collect anything (beyond, perhaps, a $255 death benefit for a spouse).
That doesn't mean such a program would be morally right, of course. Consider that many people buy life insurance policies for amounts considerably smaller than the total of their SS contributions. Were it not for the government pocketing their contributions, such people wouldn't need the life insurance; their retirement fund, which they obviously wouldn't need themselves, could be used to support their dependents or do whatever else the insurance had been supposed to do.