“Dr. K is, as usual, confused. Social Security isn’t much more mandatory than the classic Ponzi scheme.”
You mean, except one is voluntary and the other is mandatory?
The key phrase in your contention is “as long as people keep voting to be forced.” The similarity to the Ponzi scheme is that the suckers don’t know their money is gone until it’s too late. And for many over 50, that is what has happened.
SS CAN be fixed for...by voluntary privatization, so that the suckers like me that have paid in for a long, long time don’t lose everything they put in and younger participants who have paid in something will get that something out. Some will volunteer to put some in (just as some overpay income taxes to get a rebate at the end of the year, even though the rate of return is dismal) even though they know it will NOT perform well. The fix, as you say, involves not promoting it as a “ promise to care for everyone.”
SS CAN be fixed for...by voluntary privatization, so that the suckers like me that have paid in for a long, long time don’t lose everything they put in and younger participants who have paid in something will get that something out.