The Bastard In The Sand
Share on FacebookRick Perry would not back down from his assertion that Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme. If you listened closely, you could hear a nation of pretentious lefties mumble “dumb hick” under their breath.
So..Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme?
According to Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, I am an idiot for just posing the question. (VIDEO) That’s some great debating skills there Thomas. Don’t defend your position. Just declare the question stupid and the questioner idiotic. Who could argue with such rock-solid logic?
A Ponzi Scheme is an investment that depends on new investors to pay existing investors. This is from Wikipedia:
The perpetuation of the returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors to keep the scheme going.
I certainly don’t want Thomas Friedman to think I am an idiot, so I will pose a different question. How much money would seniors get if the inflow of money stopped?
The answer is ZERO. There is no money set aside. There is no money invested. The money has been spent. To pay out, Social Security is dependent on new “investors”.
Sorry Thomas. It looks like you are the idiot for not being able to spot an obvious Ponzi Scheme. It reminds me of a Richard Nixon quote:
When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal
That didn’t work out so well for ole’ Tricky Dick.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Taxes on September 9th, 2011
From Jonah Goldberg:
… liberals love building highways and bridges, but loathe making it affordable to drive on them. (LINK)
Goldberg explains the trap liberals have set for themselves, and as always, he has a couple of good lines.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Crazy Progressives,Quotes on September 9th, 2011
Rampaging longshoreman hold hostages and cause damage…but look out for those “Tea Baggers”. They’re dangerous.
Hundreds of Longshoremen stormed the Port of Longview early Thursday, overpowered and held security guards, damaged railroad cars, and dumped grain that is the center of a labor dispute, said Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha.
Six guards were held hostage for a couple of hours after 500 or more Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, he said.
No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested. Most of the protesters returned to their union hall after cutting brake lines and spilling grain from car at the EGT terminal, Duscha said.
They must have a good reason. Ahhh…yea….they don’t like competition from non-union workers and they will resort to violence to get their way.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Labor and Unions on September 8th, 2011
I don’t know Ezra Klein, but I know he is either stupid or deceitful. In his article in the Washington Post he writes,
Over the next 75 years, Social Security’s shortfall is equal to about 0.7 percent of GDP (pdf).
He gives the link to the CBO report to back his stat up…except if you go to the report you see this line
A commonly used summary measure of the system’s long term financial condition is the 75 year actuarial baance—a figure that measures the long term difference between the resources dedicated to Social Security and the program’s costs under current law. The actuarial balance is the value of Social Security’s revenues over the 75 year period, discounted to their value in current dollars, plus the current balance in the OASDI trust funds..blah.blah.blah.
I highlighted OASDI trust funds for a reason. Do you know what it is? I didn’t, but the CBO report that Ezra Klein links to explains it for us.
Social Security’s dedicated revenue stream sets it apart from most other federal programs in that the dedicated revenues are credited to trust funds that are used to finance the program’s activities. Interest on the balances of those funds also is credited to the funds (which often are treated collectively as the OASDI trust funds).
So the government has been spending the Social Security surplus money since it was created and wrote itself an IOU. Ezra Klein now uses those IOU’s as prove that we only need small “tweaks” to save the system.
In the appendix of that same report we get the truth. By 2035, the shortfall in Social Security funds will be over 1% of the economy every year. One percent of a 14 trillion dollar economy is 140 billion dollars.
This is why I don’t trust liberals, particularly when they start spouting statistics. I don’t know. Ezra Klein could be stupid. He could be deceitful. He’s liberal…so who knows? He could be both.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Economics on September 8th, 2011
Expect the President to double-down on his stimulus gamble. He will call it investing, but it is really just debt-funded spending. As Joe Biden says, the Obama crew believes we can keep from going broke by spending money. Their theory says that spending drives the economy, so the economy can be jump started if the government borrows and spends. In Keynesian terms, they want to increase aggregate demand
Except…demand isn’t the problem
Inflation-adjusted personal consumption expenditures in the U.S. today are higher than they were in the third quarter of 2007 (the quarter before the recession began). True, these expenditures are only about one-percent above their pre-recession level, but higher they nevertheless are – a fact that requires some twisting of Keynesian dogma in order to continue making a case for more government ‘stimulus’ spending.
The problem isn’t that consumers aren’t spending; it’s that businesses aren’t investing. And businesses aren’t investing because Congress and, especially, the administration exhibit a ceaseless fetish for top-down, command-and-control, debt-financed ‘governance’ of the economy – an enterprise-quashing recipe made only more poisonous by Mr. Obama’s soak-the-rich speechifying. (LINK)
In essence, more government spending at this point would suggest that there is something else in the minds of the spenders. They are not following the theories of Maynard Keynes. They have other motives. Is it graft? Is it pay-offs to unions ? Are they trying to bankrupt us? Who the hell knows? 2012 can’t come soon enough.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Crazy Progressives,Economics,Obama Administration on September 8th, 2011
Jimmy Hoffa talks tough. He says that union workers need to “take the son of bitches out”.
No…that doesn’t offend me.
The hypocrisy of the left which called for a civil tone yet fails to condemn other lefties who break their own rules offends me. It offends me because the left treats the electorate like we are stupid.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Crazy Progressives on September 7th, 2011
The DOW Jones Industrial Average stands at 11,283 at the time of this post. The same standard breached 11,700 back in January of 2000. If you factor in inflation, the DOW is not DOWN over the last 11 years.
Is it me, or is my timing horrible? The DOW was great until I was old enough to afford investing. Now it sucks. The Ponzi scheme called social security paid out trillions but won’t be there when I reach my later years. Pensions in the private sector are non-existent and kids are growing up with a sense of entitlement instead of a sense of responsibility.
I have resigned my self to working until I die.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in predictions on September 2nd, 2011
If “market failure” is an excuse for taking power away from markets, shouldn’t “government failure” be a reason to take power away from government?
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Quotes on September 2nd, 2011