If relatively older generations of Americans vote more than their children and/or grandchildren, how much debt should be authorized by who, to be paid for by whom, for how long?

Some in our country think that Social Security is a trust fund

in other words there's a pile of money being accumulated…

because you put money in the government saves it for you

and then when you retire you get it out…   

 

That's just simply not true

 

The money, payroll taxes going into Social Security, are spent

 

They're spent on benefits and they're spent on government programs

 

There is no trust

 

We're on the ultimate pay-as-you-go system…

 

The only thing Social Security has is a pile of IOUs

from one part of government to the next…

therefore when you have more retirees living longer for greater benefits

with fewer people paying in

the system inevitably will go into the red

 

George W Bush

 

If Bernard Madoff distributed money received from new investors to older investors, until there wasn’t enough money to continue, does Social Security operate under the same structure, with the exception of mandatory participation?

 

If a private financial institution

 were as reckless with its fiduciary responsibility

 as Congress has been with Social Security and Medicare

 there would be howls of indignation, demands for regulation

 and calls for the resignation and prosecution of those responsible

 

Arnold Kling

 

Is it justifiable for a nations elders to promise themselves tens of trillions of unfunded benefits like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and state level healthcare and retirement obligations for future generations to pay for?