milton friedman how we miss you!
My wife and I use our S/S earnings for gambling trips. So basically we are putting the money to work. Lot’s of change girls and drink servers have us to thank for their paychecks. We’re doing our part for the economy! I don’t think everyone can say that.
He’s right.
What is a Ponzi scheme?
A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. Ponzi scheme organizers often solicit new investors by promising to invest funds in opportunities claimed to generate high returns with little or no risk. In many Ponzi schemes, the fraudsters focus on attracting new money to make promised payments to earlier-stage investors and to use for personal expenses, instead of engaging in any legitimate investment activity.
Why do Ponzi schemes collapse?
With little or no legitimate earnings, the schemes require a consistent flow of money from new investors to continue. Ponzi schemes tend to collapse when it becomes difficult to recruit new investors or when a large number of investors ask to cash out.
We all know its a ponzie, I thought this was an article about Obamas use of a SSN that He could never have received.
Maybe next time
It didn’t stop him from raiding the lock-box though did it? Friedman was right there with the rest to assure Americans that the money the govt was “borrowing” would be put back WITH interest. Funny thing though once opened it became much easier to take than pay back; for over 50 yrs. Now as we approach retirement age we find that those people who stole the money don’t have the courage to state straight out that -for 50 yrs they’ve been using SS money to pay for lots of things so they didn’t have to raise taxes; where as, had I have been able to put my money to work, it would be worth well over 2 million in today’s dollars. That’s where it becomes a ponzi scheme, the investors (me for 1) are going to get hosed while the perpetrators will spend the rest of their years playing golf 4 days a week.
Anyone who wants to argue “I paid in so I should collect my benefits” needs to read the FACTS in this editorial. Not the sentiment or feelings or emotional reaction. The facts. The facts are that this is a Ponzi Scheme. Early generations got a huge windfall—700% through the early 60s and 180% through the 80s. The people who got those benefits are D-E-A-D. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E who is alive today is not going to get their money back. Those are the FACTS. Bitching and screaming won’t change them. And demanding your grandkids pay 50% of their income in tax so seniors can get what they were “promised” is obscene.
We can't do that to the younger generation?
Does anyone in that crowd have a brain?
What do they think this government did to their economy, when government bailed out big biz and Wall Street the tune of MULTIPLE TRILLIONS?
How is it possible Social Security is now broke, but corrupt bloated government continues to subsidies tens of millions of illegal aliens on the backs of the tax payers??
How is all this possible when the government announces their too broke to pay the tax payer SS from what they seized from their pay checks during the course of their work histories??
Government forces the U.S. tax payers to subsidize half of Mexico, bails out big biz and Wall Street, then tells the Americans, tough luck, there is nothing left for you?
Is everyone asleep??
I graduated high school in 1984, and was told then that social security wouldn’t be there for my retirement. I am about 25 years away from my retirement. I figure I’ll retire at 70. So between now and my retirement social security will collapse. So if Perry is right, and today’s college kids want have it when they retire then it would be another 25 years on top of mine. So between 2035, and 2060 we will see the end of social security. Wait, listen to this. Early in W. Bush’s presidency they put forth a plan that would shore up social security for another forty years. President Bush guaranteed that it would now be solid through 2042, and maybe even further. It seems to fall right within the time frame that they originally told me when I was in High school. Why didn’t I listen back then. I was just young, and to dumb to understand.
How do we know Perry didn’t hear Rush say the exact same thing (like I did many times), and then fit it into his campaign platform just to get votes?
Perry knows the political winds have shifted hard right. The hard question is what will Perry do when they blow to the left?
I appreciate the comments about waste and spending on illegals but if you think stopping that will pay for benefits at current levels, you are fooling yourself. Social Security and Medicare spending, if not stopped, will double the budget. You could cut out every penny spent on illegals and “Welfare queens” and you would still have to jack up taxes several trillion dollars a year to keep benefits at current levels.
I think Happy Rain has a valid point. The Obama brats and their ilk are the ones who are going to make it or break it. They were the unthinking factor that pushed the Food Stamp President into office. From my observation and impression of the under 40 group, it will take a crisis of major proportion for them to figure out that the progressive/socialist road is a loser. I just don’t know how long they will be kept on the Democratic plantation before they finally realize what slavery is really about ( and that is black, white and hispanic slavery).
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.
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.