Do you always get out of an insurance policy what you put into it?  Is it robbery when you don't?  Of course not.  Is it robbery, for instance, when someone dies at 64 and never gets a dime from Social Security?  If so, who is doing the robbing?  Is it the little old blue-haired lady who lives to 100 and gets paid way more than she put in?

Come on, Skymutt, even the feds admit that Social Security is unsustainable.  When the system was first put in place in the 1940s, there were about 40 working people for every person drawing benefits.  That ratio is now 6 to 1.  As of this year, about 50 million people will collect over $614 billion.  Thirty years from now, it will be 2 to 1 according to current projections.

The only way that the government can keep its promise is to keep raising taxes on future generations.  But that won't work, either, because in 75 years, Social Security and Medicare will have a combined unfunded liability of $40.3 trillion.  Social Security may be "social insurance" in principle, but in practice, it's a Ponzi scheme.  As you probably know, the money that's deducted from your pay is being immediately paid out to current retirees; there's no account with Slade Smith's name on it.  And the government has no legal obligation to pay you back what you've put in.

When a person or a business takes your money and promises to pay it back with interest, then doesn't follow through, that's called fraud.  When the federal government does it, it's called Social Security.  Bernie Madoff may have ripped off his clients, but at least he didn't do it by force.

Regards,
Scott Perry