“ However one might feel about Ponzi schemes”
A Ponzi scheme that is still operating and delivering payments after 90 years is not a Ponzi scheme.
Robbing peter to pay paul is not a wise investment scheme.
No, it’s just the only Ponzi scheme that has the force of the government behind it coercing every person to join the scheme so there is always a steady supply of new victims. Until the demographics turn against us.
Of course SS is a Ponzi scheme.
You think your SS check is from money YOU made? Nope that money is long gone to those went before. You're getting paid by today's young working folks.
Definitely a pyramid/Ponzi scheme. If the generation didn't pay up, YOU'D not get your SS check.
Of course, it’s a Ponzi Scheme! It fits the classic definition. You need significantly more ‘investors’ - those paying in compared to those receiving benefits - retirees. In 1940 the ratio of those paying in compared to those receiving benefits was 159.4 paying in for every one-person receiving benefits. Now (2013 data) its 2.8 investors\those paying in for every one-person receiving benefits. I’ve seen reports its at 2.4 now. You don’t have to take my word for it here are SSA’s own numbers.
https://www.ssa.gov/history/ratios.html
You’ll notice that ratio was pretty flat - approximately 3.3 until 2008, now it’s falling again.
Why is this happening? The system was set up with 1930s life expectancies. You weren’t supposed to live long enough to collect it. Also work participation numbers have dramatically fallen. Fewer people working paying in chasing more people (living longer!) receiving. You can also take out way way more then you pay in. Consider the case of Ida May Fuller the first SS recipient. Ms Fuller was in the SS system for a little short of three years and paid a total of $24.75 in Social Security tax. However, she collected a total of $22,888.92 in Social Security benefits. There have been tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Ida May Fullers. Again, you don’t have to believe me. Here’s Ms Fuller’s SS tax history from the SSA website.
https://www.ssa.gov/history/idapayroll.html
Congress of course has robbed it starting with LBJ’s administration. They continue to do so! They’ve also let people receive benefits who paid little to nothing in. (Wait until the political pressure builds to let in all the illegals! It will happen! Count on it!) However, these examples of Congressional irresponsibility are nothing compared to the fact that it’s a Ponzi Scheme built on 1930s life expectancies & work force participation demographics.
Interestingly enough the financial\insurance community when testifying about the proposal during the FDR administration warned that this would eventually happen. But what did they know compared to the deep knowledge of the Ivy League genius lawyers of the Roosevelt administration.