(12/11/04)
I'm not an economist, but I have some unsettling reservations about Social Security. Is it just me, or is Social Security just fundamentally flawed?
A dictionary.com definition of pyramid returns the following:
A classic investment fraud in which the operator pays promised high returns to current investors from the contributions made by new investors. Thus, funds are never invested in any productive assets but are simply paid out as a return to existing owners. The operator must continue to attract more and more investors in order to pay a return to those who have already committed their funds. Also called Ponzi scheme.
Sounds exactly like how Social Security works. The FTC needs to get on this. They claim to hate pyramid schemes and desire to put an end to them.
Before you go running your mouth about how old people need the benefits to survive, think about how much richer your parents are than you. My parents will probably leave me with a considerable I think old people already take enough resources from us, and most of them are ALREADY RICHER THAN US.
This is the problem with every traditional pension plan. Pension plans fail to account for drastic changes coming in demographics. People are not having as many children, and people are also living much longer, leaving a smaller workforce to provide goods and services for a larger retired demographic.
Now of course, old people have far greater health care costs than we do. And it's only fair that they get more benefits than we do. After all, they've driven the economy for many years before retiring. But that doesn't change the fact that it's not our fault that we're getting the shaft. Give me back my money.
Someone with better credentials in economic policy, let me know where my reasoning is off. I can't seem to figure it out.
