Bernie Madoff's Ponzi
By now we've all read that the scam apparently pulled by Bernie Madoff was a "Ponzi" scheme. In the "Ponzi", Madoff had promised to manage investment portfolios for his clients, but he did not invest their funds...he stole them. Then, to keep his clients from knowing that he had made off (Madoff?) with their money, he delivered what his clients thought were the annual "profits" from his wise investment of their funds. To do that he simply paid them from money put in by his new clients. As long as new clients kept delivering their funds to him for him to "manage", he kept everybody happy. A kind of "Pyramid" scheme.The more I thought about the structure of this "Ponzi", the more it seemed familiar ...and then it hit me! America's Social Security System is a giant Ponzi!! American workers have paid into the system for years, assuming that they'd get back the money they'd put in plus interest. In fact the Federal government just made off (Madoff?) with the money and pays out benefits from the money that the new workers put in. And when the number of new workers joining the Social Security system falls and the retirees grow sufficiently in number ...the Social Security Ponzi will collapse ...and the U.S. government will replace Bernie Madoff as the holder of the Guinness record for the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.Your thoughts?
Labels: American Jews, Economy, Madoff, Philanthropy, Ponzi
Submit To:→Digg it →del.icio.us →Technorati Favorites
16 Comments:
no matter what...it is sad. I think we all got a course what greed is.
I've been saying that about Social Security for years... I just didn't know it was like a "Ponzi Scheme".
Howard is right - the big problem is GREED!
Also this: http://www.jewishideas.org/angel-shabbat/can-scandal-help-reshape-jewish-philanthropy-t about the problems in Jewish philanthropy when only a few with the big money actually give when if everyone gave a little bit, we probably wouldn't be in this mess!
Two comments:
1. You're just mad because Israel is taxing your Social Security benefits. Didn't we tell you to file in the US??!
2. Bush is coming to the end of his final term. Wanna bet that he pardons Madoff?
Social Security's problems can be fixed easily: just raise the retirement age.
When SS was started the average life expectancy was 65, the work force was mostly male and most of the work was serious physical labor. Most people that lived passed 65 were not physically able to do physical labor any more.
Fortunately today people live much longer and most work is not physical labor. Many people can and do keep working past 65 even as they collect Social security.
Let's gradually raise the age for full SS benefits to 75, with partial benefits starting at 65 or 68.
Yes, we will have to wait longer to receive our benefits but at least there will be benefits to receive.
Social Security was supposed to be insurance invested in an annuity. It does not matter when your annuity starts. After you pay the full set of premiums it lasts for the guaranteed number of years based on what you purchased. Had Congress not sto;en the money but treated it like a real annuity, there would be no problem.
Dear Bones,
You've hit the nail on the head once more, as usual...
Just check some articles on this very subject on the world's best economics website: www.mises.org, for instance http://mises.org/story/3260 and http://blog.mises.org/archives/009099.asp
Technically speaking, ALL current social security systems are a fraud, unless they be set up based on VOLUNTARY contribution i.e. tsedakah.
The only economically sound and ethically correct system would be a privately managed retirement plan, where each contributor invests in order to ensure his own future. Note that this alternative is also consistent with halachic principles.
This would surely require some basic premises such as a stable banking system, solid money (i.e. the return to gold standard), abolition of the fractional reserve system which allows banks to create paper money out of thin air, etc. etc.
Congratulations once more to Mr. Bones for your brilliant work.
Best regards from Brazil,
R. Halevy.
Social Security is different in only one basic way, that is that we have (should have) always known exactly what its method is.
Shimshon is correct, the social security system's problems are primarily due to longer life span.
Sabba Hillel is NOT correct, social security was NOT set up as an annuity. It could not have been able to pay the earliest participants with anything other than current income.
Jacob
Lake Charles LA USA
Here’s how you fix Social Security in three easy steps:
1. Currently, federal government spending amounts to about 20% of GDP.
2. Every year, the Social Security trustees make three projections for the future growth of benefits. The middle projection indicates that everything is fine until about 2042, after which we will need to increase taxes by — wait for it — a whopping 2% of GDP.
3. However, it turns out that the middle projection hasn’t turned out to be the most accurate in the past. The “low cost” projection has. And that projection tells us that Social Security is solvent for at least the next 80 years.
So: even if you’re the worrying sort, the pessimistic scenario suggests that we’ll need to do no more than gradually increase taxes by about one-tenth starting in a couple of decades. Or perhaps by a twentieth along with a few modest benefit reductions. Not exactly the end of the world. But the most likely scenario is that Social Security is in fine shape and we don’t have to do anything at all.
Medicare, on the other hand, won't be so simple to fix.
Amen.
so is the u.s. govt. run by jews after all? just like us to be the biggest and the best.
The main difference between this scam and social security is that people volunteered to give their money to Madoff. If you don't give your money for social security ... well just wait for a friendly knock on your door by the IRS. Requesting your "voluntary" payment.
Madoff was a crook, but the U.S. Government is a thug. The sad thing is most people are probably right when they say the U.S. is the best country in the world.
G-D help us all!
Nice blog...
Global Exhibition & Tips, please visit us at http://planet-exhibition.blogspot.com
No, the problems in the Social Security plan are not because of too many people retiring. They are not because of poor management and top heavy politicians.
They are because the Congress, in its traditional stupidity, has been raiding the Social Security for years, giving tons of that money to children, aliens and handicapped people. Franklin Roosevelt designed it to be used for retirees who had no retirement plans from the work place, no way to survive without some kind of economic plan.
Those who think it was created as charitable for any faker too lazy to work, does not understand it. OTH, our government thieves (Senate, House reps) proudly tell the useless leeaches that they'll get paid from the fund. And that, children, is where the nitwits destroyed what was a great idea.
The big difference - the US government can print more money, Madoff couldn't
Abouut the US Social Security (SS)system;
The more "undocumented" (read "illegal) workers are employed without contributing to the SS pot, the sooner the Ponzi scheme will collapse.
情趣用品,情趣用品,飛機杯,自慰套,充氣娃娃,AV女優.按摩棒,跳蛋,潤滑液,角色扮演,情趣內衣
免費視訊聊天,辣妹視訊,視訊交友網,美女視訊,視訊交友,視訊交友90739,成人聊天室,視訊聊天室,視訊聊天,視訊聊天室,情色視訊,情人視訊網,視訊美女
一葉情貼圖片區,免費視訊聊天室,免費視訊,ut聊天室,聊天室,豆豆聊天室,尋夢園聊天室,聊天室尋夢園,影音視訊聊天室,
辣妹視訊,美女視訊,視訊交友網,視訊聊天室,視訊交友,視訊美女,免費視訊,免費視訊聊天,視訊交友90739,免費視訊聊天室,成人聊天室,視訊聊天,視訊交友aooyy
哈啦聊天室,辣妺視訊,A片,色情A片,視訊,080視訊聊天室,視訊美女34c,視訊情人高雄網,視訊交友高雄網,0204貼圖區,sex520免費影片,情色貼圖,視訊ukiss
A片下載,成人影片下載,免費A片下載,日本A片
影音視訊聊天室
Post a Comment
Back to Current Posts