Some of what I've learned makes me want to cry. Mr. R's reasoning of why SS is not a Ponzi scheme is like saying that Click & Clack, the Tappet Bro's, are not really brothers because their fingerprints are different. It is like saying that Frick & Frack, the famous ice skating team, never skated together because the color of their eyes were different.
"Ponzi Was a Piker," was an article from the Foundation for Economic Education, many years ago, about SS.
I echo the poster of a few hours ago that SS is Ponzi's Dream Ponzi Scheme.
"We TP's do not need to understand the complexity, as long as the car runs." Mr. R., we want to go forward but the car only goes backward. We want our assets, (contributions) to appreciate in our favor. We are beginning to understand that every dollar paid in is lost to us in expenses and payments to current payees. Whatever goes to the SSTF (trust fund) is lost to us, spent by Congress, but added to the total debt of all future workers, plus annual interest, which compounds their debt.
You told us in your position paper to this forum that our debt to the SSTF will grow from about $800 billion now to $4.4 trillion in just 20 more years. S K Y R O C K E T I N G.
I am ROTFC. Rolling on the floor crying.
The SSA tells us that this will all have to come from workers, over and above current taxes, between 2020 and 2032.
This is impossible.
A few months ago, Alan Greenspan told us the SS system is not sustainable.
Months before that, a Fed. committee told us that in a few more years only 3 or 4 entitlement programs will take more than 100% of tot. income taxes, with nothing left for anything else.
Other FedGov people tell us that only a small 2% adjustment will solve all SS problems for the next 75 years.
Someone is not telling the truth. The truth is what makes the car go forward when you want to go forward. Truth and logic makes a computer program run properly. It is easy to see if a computer prog. does not run properly. SocSec is more emotionally complicated.
SocSec, to many, is much more emotional than economic and logical. If they have problems, they have emotional excuses and solutions. Little related to logic, economic reality and benefit to the TP's. To many, the big concern is to benefit Congress and big government. My concern is for the TP. Taxpayer. We want our investment to be compounded, not our debt.
