Re: Social Contract

[Mike McCarty <Mike.McCarty@sbcglobal.net>]

Steve Lamb wrote:
> Mumia W wrote:
>
> > Perhaps, Steve, you should have read this section:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme#Are_national_retirement_programs_Ponzi_schemes.3F
>
>
> > That section explains why national retirement schemes are *not* ponzi
> > schemes.
>
>
>     What makes you think I didn't.  I read the entire page before posting.
> Just because it is on Wikipedia doesn't make it gospel.  And just because
> Someone wants to nitpick that it isn't a ponzi scheme based on two dubious
> claims[1] doesn't change the the basic principle.  I'm very much with Thomas
> Sowell when it comes to what Social Security is.
>
>
> [1] Those being that just because it doesn't make outlandish claims of
> immediate returns.  However it does make an outlandish claim of extended
> returns.  The second is that somehow the state using it's power of taxation

Well, even the Wikipedia article cited states that the things
that it lists which "are not" [sic] characteristics of the Social
Security System are not necessarily parts of all Ponzi Schemes.

Ponzi himself really wasn't *intending* to perpetrate a fraud. He
really thought he was doing somthing good, as far as I can tell.

> somehow makes it alright.  Lemme see, suckering someone to give you their
> money of their own free will = bad.  Forcing someone to give you their money
> even if they don't want to = good!  Sorry, I don't buy into the notion that
> the state's power of taxation changes the fundamental nature of the beast.
>
>     Besides, that section of the page is flawed by the very facts in this
> nation.  It says that since the state can tax the scheme won't fail.  Yet what
> are we facing here in this nation?  Oh, right, the collapse of the Social
> Security system in the mid 2020s.  Sorry, already saw the man behind the

Umm, this is the official word from the Social Security Agency:

>     *Your estimated benefits are based on current law.
>      Congress has made changes to the law in the past
>      and can do so at any time. The law governing benefit
>      amounts may change because, by 2041, the payroll
>      taxes collected will be enough to pay only about
>      74 percent of scheduled benefits.




> curtain, Mumia.  Might I suggest before you take anything on Wikipedia as
> gospel you do a minute amount of critical thinking.  Flaws like the above
> aren't hard to spot.

Remember: "Net" means "not entirely true". You can find all sorts
of things in the Wikipedia. Not all of them are true, or even
reasonable. Some of it even has disclaimers *stating* that some
of the statements are not factual.

Mike
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