Next in Line for a Bailout: Social Security

[scaredyclassic]

when I am too old to work, I have left instructions for my loved ones to give me the gun with the single bullet … hopefully I will remember the plan.

[EconProf]

SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning and are only now being recognized as such. They were perfect for politicians because they granted immediate benefits, or the promise thereof, and hid the true cost or pushed it into the distant future.
SS allows individuals to contractually count on an annuity for as long as one lives, to be supplemented, or not, by one’s savings and investments. The cost in its first few decades was miniscule–one or two percent of one’s gross, and only up to a ceiling of a low annual income. To further hide the true cost, the government makes the employer pay a like amount for each employee, whose true incidence studies show is a correspondingly lower pay. The full burden is about 13 percent lower pay. Think of what kind of retirement you could have if you invested that percent of your gross every working year up to age 67.
Like so much that government does, it robs people of the incentive to save, to plan and control their own future. It is actuarily unsound in so many ways, and the current recession makes obsolete all recent projections as to when it will self-destruct.
If you are in your twenties or thirties, you are soooo screwed. The greedy geezers, of which I am one, will make you pay taxes up the gazooo to pay for it, then when you are elderly, there will be nothing left.
When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS, and it was always a revelation to the students. I only hope intergenerational warfare is not the result–there is every reason for today’s young workers to be very angry.

[EconProf]

SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning and are only now being recognized as such. They were perfect for politicians because they granted immediate benefits, or the promise thereof, and hid the true cost or pushed it into the distant future.
SS allows individuals to contractually count on an annuity for as long as one lives, to be supplemented, or not, by one’s savings and investments. The cost in its first few decades was miniscule–one or two percent of one’s gross, and only up to a ceiling of a low annual income. To further hide the true cost, the government makes the employer pay a like amount for each employee, whose true incidence studies show is a correspondingly lower pay. The full burden is about 13 percent lower pay. Think of what kind of retirement you could have if you invested that percent of your gross every working year up to age 67.
Like so much that government does, it robs people of the incentive to save, to plan and control their own future. It is actuarily unsound in so many ways, and the current recession makes obsolete all recent projections as to when it will self-destruct.
If you are in your twenties or thirties, you are soooo screwed. The greedy geezers, of which I am one, will make you pay taxes up the gazooo to pay for it, then when you are elderly, there will be nothing left.
When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS, and it was always a revelation to the students. I only hope intergenerational warfare is not the result–there is every reason for today’s young workers to be very angry.

[EconProf]

SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning and are only now being recognized as such. They were perfect for politicians because they granted immediate benefits, or the promise thereof, and hid the true cost or pushed it into the distant future.
SS allows individuals to contractually count on an annuity for as long as one lives, to be supplemented, or not, by one’s savings and investments. The cost in its first few decades was miniscule–one or two percent of one’s gross, and only up to a ceiling of a low annual income. To further hide the true cost, the government makes the employer pay a like amount for each employee, whose true incidence studies show is a correspondingly lower pay. The full burden is about 13 percent lower pay. Think of what kind of retirement you could have if you invested that percent of your gross every working year up to age 67.
Like so much that government does, it robs people of the incentive to save, to plan and control their own future. It is actuarily unsound in so many ways, and the current recession makes obsolete all recent projections as to when it will self-destruct.
If you are in your twenties or thirties, you are soooo screwed. The greedy geezers, of which I am one, will make you pay taxes up the gazooo to pay for it, then when you are elderly, there will be nothing left.
When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS, and it was always a revelation to the students. I only hope intergenerational warfare is not the result–there is every reason for today’s young workers to be very angry.

[EconProf]

SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning and are only now being recognized as such. They were perfect for politicians because they granted immediate benefits, or the promise thereof, and hid the true cost or pushed it into the distant future.
SS allows individuals to contractually count on an annuity for as long as one lives, to be supplemented, or not, by one’s savings and investments. The cost in its first few decades was miniscule–one or two percent of one’s gross, and only up to a ceiling of a low annual income. To further hide the true cost, the government makes the employer pay a like amount for each employee, whose true incidence studies show is a correspondingly lower pay. The full burden is about 13 percent lower pay. Think of what kind of retirement you could have if you invested that percent of your gross every working year up to age 67.
Like so much that government does, it robs people of the incentive to save, to plan and control their own future. It is actuarily unsound in so many ways, and the current recession makes obsolete all recent projections as to when it will self-destruct.
If you are in your twenties or thirties, you are soooo screwed. The greedy geezers, of which I am one, will make you pay taxes up the gazooo to pay for it, then when you are elderly, there will be nothing left.
When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS, and it was always a revelation to the students. I only hope intergenerational warfare is not the result–there is every reason for today’s young workers to be very angry.

[EconProf]

SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning and are only now being recognized as such. They were perfect for politicians because they granted immediate benefits, or the promise thereof, and hid the true cost or pushed it into the distant future.
SS allows individuals to contractually count on an annuity for as long as one lives, to be supplemented, or not, by one’s savings and investments. The cost in its first few decades was miniscule–one or two percent of one’s gross, and only up to a ceiling of a low annual income. To further hide the true cost, the government makes the employer pay a like amount for each employee, whose true incidence studies show is a correspondingly lower pay. The full burden is about 13 percent lower pay. Think of what kind of retirement you could have if you invested that percent of your gross every working year up to age 67.
Like so much that government does, it robs people of the incentive to save, to plan and control their own future. It is actuarily unsound in so many ways, and the current recession makes obsolete all recent projections as to when it will self-destruct.
If you are in your twenties or thirties, you are soooo screwed. The greedy geezers, of which I am one, will make you pay taxes up the gazooo to pay for it, then when you are elderly, there will be nothing left.
When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS, and it was always a revelation to the students. I only hope intergenerational warfare is not the result–there is every reason for today’s young workers to be very angry.

[DWCAP]

[quote=EconProf]SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning and are only now being recognized as such. They were perfect for politicians because they granted immediate benefits, or the promise thereof, and hid the true cost or pushed it into the distant future.
SS allows individuals to contractually count on an annuity for as long as one lives, to be supplemented, or not, by one’s savings and investments. The cost in its first few decades was miniscule–one or two percent of one’s gross, and only up to a ceiling of a low annual income. To further hide the true cost, the government makes the employer pay a like amount for each employee, whose true incidence studies show is a correspondingly lower pay. The full burden is about 13 percent lower pay. Think of what kind of retirement you could have if you invested that percent of your gross every working year up to age 67.
Like so much that government does, it robs people of the incentive to save, to plan and control their own future. It is actuarily unsound in so many ways, and the current recession makes obsolete all recent projections as to when it will self-destruct.
If you are in your twenties or thirties, you are soooo screwed. The greedy geezers, of which I am one, will make you pay taxes up the gazooo to pay for it, then when you are elderly, there will be nothing left.
When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS, and it was always a revelation to the students. I only hope intergenerational warfare is not the result–there is every reason for today’s young workers to be very angry.[/quote]

I am a young working male in my 20’s, and I have 3 living grandparents. I view SS and Medicare as government enforced care for my grandparents. No way in hell will it be there for me or my generation, atleast nothing like what it currently is.

[DWCAP]

[quote=EconProf]SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning and are only now being recognized as such. They were perfect for politicians because they granted immediate benefits, or the promise thereof, and hid the true cost or pushed it into the distant future.
SS allows individuals to contractually count on an annuity for as long as one lives, to be supplemented, or not, by one’s savings and investments. The cost in its first few decades was miniscule–one or two percent of one’s gross, and only up to a ceiling of a low annual income. To further hide the true cost, the government makes the employer pay a like amount for each employee, whose true incidence studies show is a correspondingly lower pay. The full burden is about 13 percent lower pay. Think of what kind of retirement you could have if you invested that percent of your gross every working year up to age 67.
Like so much that government does, it robs people of the incentive to save, to plan and control their own future. It is actuarily unsound in so many ways, and the current recession makes obsolete all recent projections as to when it will self-destruct.
If you are in your twenties or thirties, you are soooo screwed. The greedy geezers, of which I am one, will make you pay taxes up the gazooo to pay for it, then when you are elderly, there will be nothing left.
When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS, and it was always a revelation to the students. I only hope intergenerational warfare is not the result–there is every reason for today’s young workers to be very angry.[/quote]

I am a young working male in my 20’s, and I have 3 living grandparents. I view SS and Medicare as government enforced care for my grandparents. No way in hell will it be there for me or my generation, atleast nothing like what it currently is.

[DWCAP]

[quote=EconProf]SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning and are only now being recognized as such. They were perfect for politicians because they granted immediate benefits, or the promise thereof, and hid the true cost or pushed it into the distant future.
SS allows individuals to contractually count on an annuity for as long as one lives, to be supplemented, or not, by one’s savings and investments. The cost in its first few decades was miniscule–one or two percent of one’s gross, and only up to a ceiling of a low annual income. To further hide the true cost, the government makes the employer pay a like amount for each employee, whose true incidence studies show is a correspondingly lower pay. The full burden is about 13 percent lower pay. Think of what kind of retirement you could have if you invested that percent of your gross every working year up to age 67.
Like so much that government does, it robs people of the incentive to save, to plan and control their own future. It is actuarily unsound in so many ways, and the current recession makes obsolete all recent projections as to when it will self-destruct.
If you are in your twenties or thirties, you are soooo screwed. The greedy geezers, of which I am one, will make you pay taxes up the gazooo to pay for it, then when you are elderly, there will be nothing left.
When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS, and it was always a revelation to the students. I only hope intergenerational warfare is not the result–there is every reason for today’s young workers to be very angry.[/quote]

I am a young working male in my 20’s, and I have 3 living grandparents. I view SS and Medicare as government enforced care for my grandparents. No way in hell will it be there for me or my generation, atleast nothing like what it currently is.

[DWCAP]

[quote=EconProf]SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning and are only now being recognized as such. They were perfect for politicians because they granted immediate benefits, or the promise thereof, and hid the true cost or pushed it into the distant future.
SS allows individuals to contractually count on an annuity for as long as one lives, to be supplemented, or not, by one’s savings and investments. The cost in its first few decades was miniscule–one or two percent of one’s gross, and only up to a ceiling of a low annual income. To further hide the true cost, the government makes the employer pay a like amount for each employee, whose true incidence studies show is a correspondingly lower pay. The full burden is about 13 percent lower pay. Think of what kind of retirement you could have if you invested that percent of your gross every working year up to age 67.
Like so much that government does, it robs people of the incentive to save, to plan and control their own future. It is actuarily unsound in so many ways, and the current recession makes obsolete all recent projections as to when it will self-destruct.
If you are in your twenties or thirties, you are soooo screwed. The greedy geezers, of which I am one, will make you pay taxes up the gazooo to pay for it, then when you are elderly, there will be nothing left.
When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS, and it was always a revelation to the students. I only hope intergenerational warfare is not the result–there is every reason for today’s young workers to be very angry.[/quote]

I am a young working male in my 20’s, and I have 3 living grandparents. I view SS and Medicare as government enforced care for my grandparents. No way in hell will it be there for me or my generation, atleast nothing like what it currently is.

[DWCAP]

[quote=EconProf]SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning and are only now being recognized as such. They were perfect for politicians because they granted immediate benefits, or the promise thereof, and hid the true cost or pushed it into the distant future.
SS allows individuals to contractually count on an annuity for as long as one lives, to be supplemented, or not, by one’s savings and investments. The cost in its first few decades was miniscule–one or two percent of one’s gross, and only up to a ceiling of a low annual income. To further hide the true cost, the government makes the employer pay a like amount for each employee, whose true incidence studies show is a correspondingly lower pay. The full burden is about 13 percent lower pay. Think of what kind of retirement you could have if you invested that percent of your gross every working year up to age 67.
Like so much that government does, it robs people of the incentive to save, to plan and control their own future. It is actuarily unsound in so many ways, and the current recession makes obsolete all recent projections as to when it will self-destruct.
If you are in your twenties or thirties, you are soooo screwed. The greedy geezers, of which I am one, will make you pay taxes up the gazooo to pay for it, then when you are elderly, there will be nothing left.
When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS, and it was always a revelation to the students. I only hope intergenerational warfare is not the result–there is every reason for today’s young workers to be very angry.[/quote]

I am a young working male in my 20’s, and I have 3 living grandparents. I view SS and Medicare as government enforced care for my grandparents. No way in hell will it be there for me or my generation, atleast nothing like what it currently is.

[Anonymous]

[quote=EconProf]SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning[/quote]

Ponzi schemes are based upon fraud from the outset. The participants are told a lie about where there payments come from. Ponzi schemes are not sustainable because they require perpetual growth in a finite population, which is impossible.

There is nothing fraudulent about social security. All information is publicly available. Like a ponzi scheme, the SS model also relies upon perpetual growth, but SS growth is based upon the long-term demographic trends of population growth — which are real. The SS model is sound, it is the implementation that is flawed.

[quote]When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS,[/quote]

Do you still have your lecture notes? I’m curious to see them.

[Anonymous]

[quote=EconProf]SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning[/quote]

Ponzi schemes are based upon fraud from the outset. The participants are told a lie about where there payments come from. Ponzi schemes are not sustainable because they require perpetual growth in a finite population, which is impossible.

There is nothing fraudulent about social security. All information is publicly available. Like a ponzi scheme, the SS model also relies upon perpetual growth, but SS growth is based upon the long-term demographic trends of population growth — which are real. The SS model is sound, it is the implementation that is flawed.

[quote]When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS,[/quote]

Do you still have your lecture notes? I’m curious to see them.

[Anonymous]

[quote=EconProf]SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning[/quote]

Ponzi schemes are based upon fraud from the outset. The participants are told a lie about where there payments come from. Ponzi schemes are not sustainable because they require perpetual growth in a finite population, which is impossible.

There is nothing fraudulent about social security. All information is publicly available. Like a ponzi scheme, the SS model also relies upon perpetual growth, but SS growth is based upon the long-term demographic trends of population growth — which are real. The SS model is sound, it is the implementation that is flawed.

[quote]When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS,[/quote]

Do you still have your lecture notes? I’m curious to see them.

[Anonymous]

[quote=EconProf]SS and Medicare were Ponzi schemes from the beginning[/quote]

Ponzi schemes are based upon fraud from the outset. The participants are told a lie about where there payments come from. Ponzi schemes are not sustainable because they require perpetual growth in a finite population, which is impossible.

There is nothing fraudulent about social security. All information is publicly available. Like a ponzi scheme, the SS model also relies upon perpetual growth, but SS growth is based upon the long-term demographic trends of population growth — which are real. The SS model is sound, it is the implementation that is flawed.

[quote]When I taught economics in the 80s and 90s, I would devote one full lecture to the true nature of SS,[/quote]

Do you still have your lecture notes? I’m curious to see them.

[Author]

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