Sunday, September 26, 2010

Ponzi and SSI

PolitiFact really blew this one.

Of COURSE Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. From the PolitiFact story:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission offers a simple definition: "A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors."

Social Security has been raided by both parties to make the deficit look better for about 30 years now.

On one level, that sounds like Social Security, which uses taxes on today’s wage earners to fund the retirement checks of millions of Americans. But remember: The SEC also notes that a Ponzi is an "investment fraud."

Are funds not "invested" with the government? And here is Johnson's mistake:

Johnson’s campaign manager, Juston Johnson, said neither he nor his boss is "saying the Social Security Administration is a fraud" -- pointing out the candidate wants to fix the system. Asked why the candidate used Madoff’s name, if it wasn’t meant to imply criminal wrongdoing, the spokesman declined to answer.

I don't think SSA itself is fraudulent, but the American people have certainly been defrauded. Criminally. By the Federal Government. Johnson should say so. Funds have been "invested" with the government, used for other purposes BY the government and no longer occupy the account. That's fraud.

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