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Yes, I'm aware of that. However, you're missing the point. Here it is again!The Federal Govt. isn't an insurance company....
Pay-as-you-go systems are not Ponzi schemes.
The fact that SS is non-profit, and insurance companies are, doesn't change anything about the analogy.
Yes, actually, it did happen. The trust fund hasn't disappeared, and there is absolutely no reason to imagine it won't be repaid.that money was never supposed to be put on budget but rather in a lock box. That didn't happen....
US federal securities are widely regarded as the most secure government bonds in the world. If the US government is somehow incapable of paying back the intergovernmental bonds, we have a lot more problems on our hands than the SS shortfall.
Plus... if we didn't use the trust fund for intergovernmental loans, we'd just borrow the money on the open markets, while that capital sits there and does nothing.
You're conflating two very different parameters here.You also have no idea where the funds are going to come from to pay for future long term retirees since there aren't enough workers to pay those retirees with existing dollars.
On one hand, there's the SS shortfalls. SS costs more than the taxes specifically allocated for it. This is an artificial problem, caused by an irrational insistence that the ONLY valid way to fund SS, from now into perpetuity, is via payroll taxes.
On the other, there's the intergovernmental loans. The federal government is borrowing from the trust fund, and the federal government is obligated to pay back those loans. The revenues to pay that back can come from ANY federal revenue source OR future borrowing. In addition, as we draw down from the trust fund, there is less we're required to pay back.
You're basically screaming about the wrong issues. The idea that "SS is broke" is a fiction. What really matters is how much we pay individual recipients, and how much we're willing to pay in taxes for that safety net.