Posted on 08/29/2011 6:27:21 PM PDT by Kaslin
Retirement: When Gov. Rick Perry called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme" and a "monstrous lie," the usual suspects complained about his irresponsible rhetoric. But why should Perry soft pedal a hard truth?
When asked about Social Security at a presidential campaign stop in Iowa this weekend, Perry said: "It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people. The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie. It is a monstrous lie on this generation."
You could almost hear the left's collective jaws dropping. How could anyone say this about their most-beloved New Deal program, which has rescued millions of seniors from poverty and let millions more live dignified middle-class lives?
But Perry is right. As Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman once put it, Social Security is "the biggest Ponzi scheme on Earth."
In a classic Ponzi scheme, the first investors get big returns, paid for entirely by new ones. But eventually, you run out of enough new investors and the scheme collapses.
Social Security has operated in basically the same way. The first retirees got huge "returns" from their Social Security tax dollars, but those returns have dwindled with each successive generation as the ratio of workers to retirees inevitably dropped.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
But why should Perry soft pedal a hard truth?
“Pedaling” is what cyclists do.
“PEDDLING” is what soft-peddling salesmen (peddlers) do, in contrast to the “hard-sell” types.
There is a plan to fix it. Raise the retirement age to 70 or 72. Index it to life expectancy. Means test. That will work. Unless, of course, we want to triple payroll taxes and keep the retirement age the same.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2770354/posts
This thread is still alive and is a good read.
My thoughts on the matter. And yes I just keep re-posting it every chance I get.
No one is “owed” anything. It is immoral (not to mention legally dubious) for one generation to bind the next for its debts. What politics give...politics can take. SS is a simple and straightforward politically calculated Ponzi scheme. Someone’s ignorance of Ponzi schemes and reliance on the promise of politicians does not encumber the rights of my children and grand children to decide NOT to pay someone else’s “entitlements”.
If you are dependent on SS then you are dependent on good ole’ Uncle Sugar and you are not Free. You will have to vote the vested interest ticket and keep politicians in office who promise to pay your benefits regardless the cost to everyone else. Social Security is pure looting. Take from today’s workers and give to today’s recipient. That’s all that it ever was and all that it ever will be.
What you receive today is not based on any thing other than politics. If your generation has the political clout than you can extract whatever you want from some other generation.
There is no basis in law for calling SS a trust fund or giving any legally enforceable claim to future benefits. It is also not some sacred inter-generational promise since future generations were not even alive when the promise was made. It also is not due and payable because you were promised by some politician that it would be there for you. If you have a problem with that then look up the person who made the promise and make him pay.
At some point the amount of taxation (not contributions) needed will exceed what the workers are willing to pay or the economy can absorb and then changes will start.
So, start with means testing so that we can define SS for what it is...WELFARE. Then cut off benefits after a date say 20 years from now. In reality its what most people under 50 expect anyway.
Until then be grateful for every dollar you collect.
Texas is also ranked low in high school graduation rate.
Texas is 49th in verbal SAT scores in the nation and 46th in average math SAT scores. Can we trust him to reform Washington?
1) Socialism security is morally wrong from the start. Which is why...
2) We should end socialism security, not save it.
3) Save for your own old age, and don’t enslave your children (or someone else’s) to pay for your retirement.
4) Very few individuals today can avoid paying socialism security. Which is too bad. Not allowing people to opt out is a big part of the problem, and what makes it slavery.
5) Cut all unconstitutional government spending immediately - which means medicare and medicaid too.
6) Sorry if you depend on socialism security. But not sorry enough to continue to let you steal from me and my family.
If you say you are a “conservative” have the courage to live your values. Or STFU and admit that you are a fascist. Which is what the US is now, a democratic fascist state. And no I don’t mean fascist in the pejorative sense, rather in a technical, political science sense, as in corporatism - i.e. Italian fascism. We got it from FDR (who Mussolini admired btw) and haven’t lost it yet.
Flame on.
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