Another Ponzi Scheme Is About To Go Belly Up....Social Security

Sucks to be under 45 or so.

Social Security and Medicare trust funds are expected to run out of money sooner than expected, a report released Tuesday shows.

The report, from the programs' trustees, shows that expenses will exceed tax revenues for Medicare's hospital insurance fund in 2017, two years earlier than was estimated in a similar report in 2008.

Social Security's trust fund is expected to be exhausted in 2037, four years earlier than last year's estimate.

Get ready to pony up more money.

And since our current entitlement system is going to go bust sooner than later, it's clearly the ideal time to take on the entire health care system of the country. What could go wrong?

BTW- I know the analogy between Social Security and a Ponzi scheme isn't perfect (at least participation in a Ponzi scheme is voluntary) but I found this defense of Social Security to be unintentionally hilarious. The writer's point is SS isn't a Ponzi scheme because A- people paying into know they are getting screwed B-the government will never run out of investors because it can force more people to pay in at higher rates and C-Social Security means well.

A and C may well be true but, so what? As for B, well you may think there's an unlimited supply of people and money to be sucked into the system but I doubt that's true. At some level of confiscation younger generations are simply going to say the hell with the old people. As the Baby Boomers begin to die off, so does their political clout. You just can't drain people dry forever, no matter how good you think your intentions are.

posted by DrewM. at 03:50 PM

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