Social Security Benefits
I doubt it, but 50 years from now, this Social Security pyramid scheme may still be going on. But let’s be honest, IT IS A PYRAMID SCHEME. There is so much packed up in this topic that it deserves more attention than this quick post.
In 2068, ‘Beneficiaries’ may be getting their promised $1000/m taken from the currently-working, productive, tax payers. The retirement age may be 87 years old, a loaf of bread may cost $96, and your housing may cost you $5000 a month for a small 1 bedroom apartment in the suburbs.
The number of individuals relying solely on Social Security alone is staggering. To add insult to injury, rising inflation will probably cause those would be retires to stay in the work force longer. Collecting benefits and still working, ‘double dipping’, will have negative effects as well. Not only would this be responsible for keeping younger productive individuals out of the work place (stunting the growth of younger generations), it would no doubt be coupled with a higher tax burden on those who were working to help pay for the growing liabilities.
So why are you forced to support this program if logically we know it is broken and soon to be causing devastation? Why are you forced to pay for something you may never benefit from?
October 2, 2018 @ 12:33 pm
Pyramid schemes ultimately fail because the number of new people paying in (the bottom number of the pyramid) can no longer generate enough income to pay the benefits promised to those higher on the pyramid. According to the Social Security Administration (see https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2012/tr2012.pdf), since the inception of the program in 1935, the number of workers it takes to support an individual beneficiary has risen exponentially. In 1945, the cost to support one recipient was spread over 41 workers; by 2010 the cost per recipient was spread over only 3 workers.
Mathematically unsustainable.