re: Well I just noticed on my online banking / payroll tax increase

FIFY

quote:

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THE Social Security with-holding is not a tax. It's an investment in history's largest pyramid scheme.

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Our government <sometimes> throws white-collar criminals in jail for running fraud schemes. However our government can do whatever the frick it likes.

A pyramid scheme starts by recruiting investors with an offer of guaranteed high returns (i.e., more than they invested). The earliest investors receive a return paid for by new recruits, but it isn’t a return on any real investment. From the day the scam starts, liabilities exceed assets. The only way it can continue is to get additional investors.

Like it or not, this describes Social Security. Current taxpayers will collect if workers continue making payments. Current taxes are being used to pay current recipients. Pyramid schemes collapse because they run out of investors. Social Security continues because the government forces people to participate. If people could opt out, the system would fail.

Part of what made Social Security work originally was that the retirement age was set higher than average life expectancy. Some people would pay into the system but never collect benefits. Since then, life expectancy has risen dramatically, but the retirement age has not.

If Social Security had to live by the rules applied to private retirement plans, it would be closed and the administrators would be in jail for fraud.