The government takes money from you in the form of social security. Then the government borrows that money from the SS Trust Fund and uses it to make bombs and drop on brown people. Now the SS Trust Fund owes you your money plus interest and the government owes the SS Trust Fund your money plus interest. So SS is essentially a tax that the government promises to pay back with interest, unlike other forms of taxation and the government is not obligated to return.

So now for the government to pay you back they have to do one of the following:

-Have the Fed monetize the debt. This means they just print the money. This creates inflation and is a tax on anyone who has dollars since they will be less valuable. It also makes it likely that interest rates will rise. Making it harder for government and more expensive to borrow in the future.

-Borrow money from other creditors. But how will you repay those creditors? It like borrowing from one person and then another and another. The only way you can continue forward is if someone is always willing to lend you money. This is like a ponzi scheme.

-Raising taxes. This means the people working now have to pay more in taxes and get nothing back for it so that the government can meet past obligations. This seems highly immoral and something out of a Sopranos episode. If Bob is owed $1 by the government how is it moral for the government to take $1 from Bill and give it to Bob? What does Bill get back for this? Why should Bill be responsible for this debt when he was not alive when it was taken out?

It's not your money.

It's kind of like baseball. All 18 of the players know what game they are playing. So do the dudes on the bench, and the coaches and umps, and the fans in the stands. They know the rules and have agreed beforehand on how to play the game.

The thing is, they could easily drop their gloves and just start having sex with each other, but they don't.

But they don't.

It's a pretty terrible plan overall, but it was the best they could think of in the 60s. I mean, they had black and white TVs with no cable and hoops with a stick instead of video games.

Also, I am so sick of the bombing brown people meme. The Global War On Terror is focused in Asia technically they are yellow-brown. Racists.

Kind of ochre imo.

OP,

I think you understand Social Security pretty well. Print, borrow & tax are the options.

You can not work that way you don't take part in the system. So your analogy sucks.

Reduce benefits is the other, and that certainly will happen in one form or another.

I support SS. The reality is it is impossible for the SS system to go bust unless people figure a way to tap in it before retirement age like SS disability and destroy it via government. There might be better models http://www.cato.org/publications/com...rity-lesson-us .

Basically people put in 15.3% of their income and that money is used to provide a check in retirement. Medicare should be ended for the Japanese system providing retirees with a bigger check or lower the 15.3%. Since they never spend what they receive a hugh trust fund has been created $2.7 trillion, which is part of the national debt The government spends the money that comes in, and gives bonds with below market below inflation interest rates attached to them. That is how they are to raid the SS fund.

Morons always claim the fund will go broke due to unfunded liabilities. The reality is they could just cut benefits, Although I do not support Obama he was correct in that the payroll tax could be lowered without hurting current benefits.

INAR2 I have no idea how you put these scenes together but... Wwwait a minute

OP understands social security well. It made sense when it was developed in the 1930s, when 1) there was a bunch of young people; and 2) the average life expectancy was 61.7 years. Back then, a bunch of 20 and 30 year olds supporting the relatively few number of 65 year olds was feasible.

Now that life expectancy is 78.7 and there are fewer young people, social security is not sustainable. The big question isn't whether you're going to get your money back from SS (you won't). The big question is how long the gov't keeps this charade going.

Seems much easier to just run ss like food stamps on an annual basis.

why would they voluntarily stop?

The way they stop it is by promising not to cut benefits for people who vote now, in exchange for screwing people who don't vote (or who will be pissed after they are out of office later).

Same way they already have reduced benefits - put a date way in the future when the retirement age rises (or your benefits get cut otherwise).

Social security is really low on my list of things to be /outraged about.

At some point, it will become impossible to pay the retirees with the incoming money. One would presume that the govt would stop before it came to that, but you never know.

Yes, they will eventually have to stop, because simply fixing the problem is not an option they are willing to put on the table.

http://www.cato.org/publications/com...rity-lesson-us

If you read the 1st paragraph it is suppose to already be bust. People don't understand math. You just get a smaller check, raise the age, or increase the percentage. $1,230 is the average check in 2012, saving millions of lives.

Clearly you've never been to a Cardinals game.

BA-ZING!

It's a vote-buying Ponzi scheme. What's so hard to understand?

More like 1935. The life expectancy of a 65-year old was about 3 years. Today the life expectancy of a 65-year old is about 18 years. Within 3 years the recipient has already gotten back everything he has put into the fund. Bad math.

OP what you fail to understand is social security is really a transfer of wealth form the young to the old. The old vote and the young don't. I mean its not hard to understand why it's become what it's become.

I for damn sure am not going to vote for anyone who wants to reduce my benfits when I'm retirement age. Bring in more mexicans and broaden the tax base if you have to but don't act like you might lower my checks.

fyp

Best pro life argument I've heard in a while Tom