At bars, barber shops and at dinner tables all over America, everyone is asking if Social Security really is a Ponzi scheme? To the talking head on the tube who was doing his best to convince me it isn’t, you can thread all the needles you like, add intent, insert a million technicalities, and slice it and dice it up any way you care to in an attempt to prove or disprove anything.
But no matter how you split hairs in your presentation, when you take money from B to pay A, money from C to pay B, and money from D to pay C, it is still a Ponzi scheme, and is known by that name because that is precisely how Charles Ponzi did stole thousands of dollars in 1916.
The only real difference is in the wording. We use the words fraud, scam or swindle when this system is run by Bernie Madoff, Reed Slatkin or Gerald Payne. Never when it’s run by the government. The talking head tried to kosherize Social Security by calling it a “transfer scheme” (I was shocked that the word “scheme” was there, as it is as negative as “fraud” and “scam”).
There are many super-intelligent beings on this planet who will argue that Social Security is exactly like that.
From the Cato Institute: “Just like Ponzi’s plan, Social Security does not make any real investments — it just takes money from later “investors” or taxpayers, to pay benefits to earlier, now retired, taxpayers. Like Ponzi, Social Security will not be able to recruit new “investors” fast enough to continue paying promised benefits to previous investors. Because each year there are fewer young workers relative to the number of retirees, Social Security will eventually collapse, just like Ponzi’s scheme.”
Please note: the Cato Institute uses the words “like Ponzi”, three times in that one paragraph.
From a New York Times op-ed written by John Makin, the Director Of Fiscal Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, under the headline “Social Security: nothing but a ponzi scheme.”
If my editor, fine gentleman that he is, were to allot me the proper space I could show you 100 more reliable sources to prove Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. In fact, Social Security is not only a Ponzi scheme, it is the ultimate Ponzi scheme and would be illegal if it was not run by the government.
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Mr. Raisman. I will sum up this week’s commentary to you in one word – Solyndra. Nothing more need be said.
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We used to say, “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.”
That’s been changed to, “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws and governments will have guns.”
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We just returned from a couple of weeks out in the middle of the country. We drove through Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. That’s four more states my roommate crossed off her list. She says that before she leaves this earth, she wants to visit all 57 states. Fifty-Seven? Yes. Fifty-seven. If my president can say 57 states, so can she.
President Obama is terrific with the Teleprompter, but on his own, we heard about the 57 states, the 10,000 people who died in Kansas, the Naval Corpse Man, the Jews and janitors and a whole lot more. Recently he mentioned the Intercontinental Railroad. Do we really have a train going from New York to Paris? The left-wing media still pokes a lot of fun at Bush but remains rather quiet about Obama. I am StanGershbein@Bellsouth.net spelling it out for you: P-O-T-A-T-O … E?
