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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
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To: Wayners who wrote (768655)2/18/2009 4:20:12 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof  Read Replies (1) of 769670
 
Re: "Clearly past and present social security recipients have and are being paid from future/later recipients. Just as in all Ponzi schemes, such schemes are not sustainable."

Actually, they certainly CAN BE totally sustainable.

Which means that they do not meet the definition for 'PONZI scheme'.

If population grows (fairly safe bet there...), and or wealth level rises (been a truism for America since it's founding), then there is absolutely no reason that an inter-generational pension insurance scheme such as S.S. can't work indefinitely.

There is ONE important additional caveat: You simply *can't* set the per person pay-out amounts TOO HIGH.

The actuaries must be PRUDENT. (And make necessary adjustments through time, as they become necessary... such as if life expectancy significantly increase, or inflation significantly increases. Both changes to baseline assumptions though act *opposite* to each other.)
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