The annual surplus of Social Security has always been “invested” in only debt obligations issued by the U.S. Treasury.
So there is very little cash on hand in the OASDI Trust Funds, but over $2 trillion in these “securities”.
Trouble is, the U.S. Treasury can not redeem these for cash unless it issues more of them. That is because the Treasury has very little cash. It’s also living hand-to-mouth.
Virtually all governments in the civilized world have issued far too much debt instruments, i.e., borrowed and spent.
Since the money was not invested, but spent, it’s gone. The debt obligations must be paid for out of future taxes, the only source of money for the government other than creating it.
Yes, Virginia, any private-sector entity who operated in this fashion would, at this point, be arrested for running a Ponzi scheme just as Bernie Madoff did.
It’s not just Social Security that’s a Ponzi scheme, it’s most governments as well.
This is what happens when governments are allowed to borrow.
All that has to be done is Constitutionally prohibit additional borrowing and Constitutionally limit the money supply to a range of percentages of the annual total of all U.S. business transactions. That will naturally provide a reasonable and adequate money supply and naturally prohibit spending more than comes in as tax revenue.
Thinking you know or can determine what the correct percentage is, is, as wotshisname Hayek said, the pretense of knowledge. Besides, the money supply takes more forms than greenbacks and Euros and yen. Most of my financial transactions are handshakes between computers. Very little physical money changes hands.