Social Security and Scrooge McDuck's Money Bin

Sad to say, many regard Social Security (or Medicare) dollars as "theirs." Some grow quite angry if they are challenged to see the reality of it. Here is a response I gave to a friend on FB.

The simple answer to your question is that social security is simply not a big piggie bank somewhere drawing interest. It is a tax on the working generation paid out to those who are no longer working. Aside from the fact that that pittance you and I "contributed" has been eaten up by Congress as they enhanced the payout amount to people who NEVER paid enough to justify what they are getting out - aside from that, you don't have a claim on one red cent. Any more than you or I can claim any of our income tax dollars back. It is the same. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme - except on a galactic level compared to Berney Madoff's pitiful $80 some billions.

But to be honest, of course we would all like to see some of what we regard as "our own" back. I am not different than anone else in that regard. But I urge you to consider that the money is already gone. Anything you draw is drawn on the backs of present or future taxpayers - even your kids and grandkids. I don't know how that makes you feel, but I feel ripped off. If they had truly invested it, and let me manage it, I might have been wise enough to have seen it grow. No chance of that now.

Ross Perot had a famous line about "that giant sucking sound" referring to US jobs that would be sucked south of the border under NAFTA. That same sucking sound has been at work on the social security bank account, and like scrooge McDuck's mighty money bin, it has been sucked dry by generations of Beagle Boy robber-baron Congress critters.

Johnny, I hate to tell you, but its gone.