SS Ponzi Scheme is short $16 Trillion (w/suggested reforms): Kotlikoff

[DSpencer]

Re: SS Ponzi Scheme is short $16 Trillion (w/suggested reforms): Kotlikoff

Spencer

I think you are on to something here. Perhaps this would work for you too. Just shut down the fire department in your area and replace it with nothing, Then when houses burn down as long as it is not your house everything will be fine.

Perhaps you never thought about this: I am going to have to live to be about 80 before I get back the money that My company and I have paid into SS over the years.

Youre an idiot

Cindy

So is this your "logic":

1. You've paid lots of money into the system throughout the years.
2. The people in charge spent the money instead of saving it because it's really just another government spending program not any kind of real retirement saving account.
3. I don't want to pay for other people's mistakes and be involved in the same type of irresponsible scheme that relies on future generations to pay for my retirement.
4. Therefore, I'm an idiot.

Perhaps you've never thought about this: I could probably live to be 1000 and still never get back the money that my company and I have paid into SS over the years. Unless they pay me in Zimbabwe style dollars.

I just want to save my own money for my own retirement. I don't trust other people (especially politicians) with my money. I certainly don't trust that in 30 years or so somebody I've never met will be glad to pay for my retirement. Why does that make me an idiot?

Would you store your cash and jewelry at a stranger's house or your politician's mansion? Of course not. Unless of course, you're an idiot.

[dropthatcash]

Re: SS Ponzi Scheme is short $16 Trillion (w/suggested reforms): Kotlikoff

But Social Security has also played a central role in the massive, six-decade Ponzi scheme known as U.S. fiscal policy, which transfers ever-larger sums from the young to the old.

In so doing, Uncle Sam has assured successive young contributors that they would have their turn, in retirement, to get back much more than they put in. But all chain letters end, and the U.S.’s is now collapsing.

Great analogy. It's been a broke system for awhile but the government is trying to put it on zombie mode by importing millions of younger workers to fill the bottom ranks of the pyramid. Obviously unchecked population growth is not a well thought out plan as we are rapidly running out of resources and the last time I checked the U.S. is a finite space. When one stops to figure the math, the U.S. budget of 3 trillion divided by the population of 300 million equals federal spending of 10,000 per person. That's 40,000 dollars for a family of 4. The typical immigrants that we see crashing the border don't capable of even earning 40K let alone have any chance of paying that much in federal taxes. And yes, you are paying 40K even if much of it is hidden taxing. We all pay 15% social security right of the bat (but simple minded folk think they're only paying 7.5%).

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: SS Ponzi Scheme is short $16 Trillion (w/suggested reforms): Kotlikoff

Thanks. I'll withhold judgement until I have time to read the details, then.

Consider also the following Guest Post: Modern Monetary Theory — A Primer on the Operational Realities of the Monetary System, by Scott Fullwiler, Associate Professor of Economics at Wartburg College, posted today at Yves Smith's Naked Capitalism.

It begins:

At its core, there are two parts to Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). The first is a description of how the monetary system actually works, mostly focusing upon interactions between the central bank, the treasury, and the financial system, though this part also requires a very thorough understanding of the Minskyan-related literature of many MMT’ers (I note this because so many critics of MMT ignore or not aware of the vast MMT literature on financial instability and reforming the financial system). The second is a set of policy proposals that arise from this description and is largely outside the scope of this particular post but which can be found in any number of MMT publications and blogposts (and, again, including the sizeable MMT literature on reforming the financial system).

Of critical importance to most of MMT’s description of the monetary system is its elaboration of the system’s operational realities, which for MMT’ers generally means three things:

My first reading of it found it difficult, but it seems to be making points worth a second reading.