“In the long run, we are all dead.” John M. Keynes
YES IT IS!
The annual surplus of Social Security has always been “invested” in only debt obligations issued by the U.S. Treasury.
So there is very little cash on hand in the OASDI Trust Funds, but over $2 trillion in these “securities”.
Trouble is, the U.S. Treasury can not redeem these for cash unless it issues more of them. That is because the Treasury has very little cash. It’s also living hand-to-mouth.
Virtually all governments in the civilized world have issued far too much debt instruments, i.e., borrowed and spent.
Since the money was not invested, but spent, it’s gone. The debt obligations must be paid for out of future taxes, the only source of money for the government other than creating it.
Yes, Virginia, any private-sector entity who operated in this fashion would, at this point, be arrested for running a Ponzi scheme just as Bernie Madoff did.
It’s not just Social Security that’s a Ponzi scheme, it’s most governments as well.
This is what happens when governments are allowed to borrow.
All that has to be done is Constitutionally prohibit additional borrowing and Constitutionally limit the money supply to a range of percentages of the annual total of all U.S. business transactions. That will naturally provide a reasonable and adequate money supply and naturally prohibit spending more than comes in as tax revenue.
Perry got this one right. Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme.
2. A middle-of-the-road Republican called Social Security a Ponzi Scheme. For doing this he has been labeled a foaming-at-the-mouth rightwing nutjob.
3. Therefore you can not get elected if you call Social Secuirty what it is: a Ponzi Scheme.
4. Therefore Social Security will continue to be run as a Ponzi Scheme until it collapses and takes the rest of the US with it.
5. Therefore we ought to start stocking up on beans, bullets, and toilet paper.
Yes, except with a Ponzi scheme you can get out when you realize you’ve been burned. You can’t get out of Social Security. You can file a Title 5 Administrative Rescission, but they may or may not accept it.
Of course it is but it is still like the third rail in politics right now.
ME THINKS OLE PONZI WOULD BE PROUD. . . . . . .
Today's young, or even not-so-young like me (33) will not get a penny of what we've put in. Everyone under 40 will not get a penny. We might as well face up to that fact.
Keep social security the same with one exception: you own the account, not the government.
You'd get T. Bond interest and retire with vastly more, your heirs would get any account surplus, and the government couldn't count it twice and spend it away.
I disagree. You can say Social Security is an elephant, if you define elephant as a system that looks like social security. The author is redefining ponzi schemes in a way that does not resemble ponzi schemes at all.
SS is not a scheme, scam, fraud, or socialism. It is an American institution that works, and has never failed to meet payoll, and is as strong as anything. There is no person profiting dishonestly from SS as there is in Ponzi schemes; there is no sudden collapse. There are no accounts being saved up; there are no creditors. It is silly to call it a ponzi scheme, and makes the person making the claim look like an idiot.
The author, sadly, does not understand how SS works. It would even work if there were only 2 workers to every retiree (which is the case if we had no population growth and we had 2 years working to 1 year retirement, like age 25 - 65 working, and 65 to 85 retired). Do the math. 2 workers give up 6.2% and their employers match; the retiree gets 24.8% of a full time salary. That’s it. No collapse, no ponzi scheme, no socialism.
Meanwhile, you whiners still get 93.8% of your salary to have as many private savings accounts as you want. Don’t ask the gvernment to get involved! Do your own saving without whining.
and when you retire, enjoy your SS check as a modest supplement to your real retirement savings. And quit whining - SS is never going away, never going to collapse. All that will happen is that the checks will be a little less than promised. Tough - you didn’t want the checks anyway.