On Mon, 05 Dec 2016 10:47:46 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Mon, 05 Dec 2016 14:40:30 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Mon, 5 Dec 2016 09:26:23 -0500, "Kurt V. Ullman"
wrote:

On 12/4/16 10:26 PM, Roger Blake wrote:
On 2016-12-04, Stormin' Norman wrote:
Institutionalized theft, using your logic one could call Social
Security a Ponzi scheme. However, both statements are wrong as we the
people have legislated and legalized taxation, social security and
conscription. If you did not have a say in these legislations, you
might have a point, however, our society has deemed them to be legal.

Social Security *is* a Ponzi scheme by any reasonable definition of the term.


I have one problem with calling SS a Ponzi scheme. Mr. Ponzi's
victims were all voluntary and the "investment" was enforced by guys
with guns, and forfeiture warrants.



With all due respect, if you and others object to the law, change it.
That is your right.


Any attempt to eliminate SS will meet with a tarring and feathering.
Followed by a trip out of town on a rail.

Which is exactly how a representative democracy should work, sans the
violence of course. However, SS has been around for about 80 years or
so and there is nothing to say a better system could not be
introduced.

For example, if the SS trust fund were configured as a blind trust,
one divided into many diverse pieces and administered by contracted
private management firms, the odds are it would not only be flush with
money for the foreseeable future, but it would also produce an
enormous shot in the arm for private industry and hence employment.

Combine the above with a legal prohibition on congress being able to
touch or borrow those funds and, those citizens who are most in need
at the most vulnerable points in their lives could live in the dignity
which should be afforded to our elders.

It is a win-win situation, proper investments produce tremendous
returns, and in turn those investments encourage employment and
economic growth. All while helping our neighbors who need it the
most, regardless of whether they made great life choices or not.