So everyone is apoplectic about Governor and presidential wannabe Rick Perry saying that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme”. Some will take the transparently hypocritical route of saying Perry wants to starve old people. On the other end will be those like Charles Krauthammer who called Perry’s statement a “gaffe”, then defined a “Washington gaffe” as “when a politician inadvertently speaks the truth”.
Good one Charles!
Ponzi schemes are illegal of course, but Perry may have been saying that Social Security as it is administered WOULD BE illegal if it were not done by the government. That’s true of a lot of things, like a state lottery. Here in Georgia, only the state can run a gambling operation. Not even the Indians have casinos.
Technically it may not be an illegal scheme, but few would argue that the program is sustainable as it’s currently configured. Remember that the Baby Boom Generation (my buds) are just beginning to receive benefits, but it will be 20 years before that chicken goes all the way through the snake.
I don’t know the exact numbers, but when Social Security was instituted in the 1930s there were something between 50 and 150 people working for every retiree in the program. And the life expectancy of an American man was 64. That’s why they set the retirement age at 65. About half the people would never collect a dime. That’s how the upper end of that 50 to 150 range worked out.
Today, there are three (count ’em, one, two, three) people working for each retiree receiving benefits. Soon, as the Baby Boomers stretch out their hands in large numbers, there will be just two people working for each person collecting benefits.
Add to that the fact that life expectancy for Americans is now dangerously close to 80 and you can see the problem. Not only will the majority of people eligible for benefits live long enough to collect, they will live SO LONG that they will probably collect much more than they put in.
Social Security actually spent more than it took in last year for the first time, but it probably won’t be the last.
George W. Bush attempted to reform Social Security so that it could survive what we know is coming, but every attempt to make the program viable in the changing demographic climate is demagogued and torn to shreds by the press and statist left. If Perry becomes the Republican nominee, we can expect the “starving old people” card to be played to the nth degree.
