Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme?
My answer: Mostly. It started as a pure Ponzi scheme, as new entrants paid benefits to old. It will end either in collapse, or possibly, at reduced benefit levels, a straight pay -as-you-go transfer program from young workers to retirees. Forget about the “investments” in government IOUs that SS holds. The end game is a modest pension scheme based on transfers (or economic collapse with currency debasement, depending on the realism of the politicians and the voters.) Think of it along the lines of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is nothing of the sort — maybe it could be renamed as the Old Age Earned Credit, or somesuch.
