Fahran wrote:US-SSR wrote:It's a transfer of assets from today's workers to today's retirees/disabled/survivors. In a Ponzi scheme the con gets the marks to contribute money by playing on their greed for returns that don't actually exist. SS hasn't missed a payment since 1935.
The con won't miss a payment either as long as they can keep marks paying into the Ponzi scheme. Social security, unlike a Ponzi scheme, is reliable so long as we can count on the government to honor its obligation and the population to sustain payments from one generation to the next. It's not a Ponzi scheme because the intention isn't to defraud people, but it has the same weaknesses in some respects.
I reckon the defrauding takes shape in the government pretending it's sustainable.
I can only take some comfort in the impermanence of Social Security.
