The Biggest Ponzi Scheme Ever – But It’s Not What You Think

OK. So on the heels of a financial crisis, the former chairman of Nasdaq admits to pulling off a $50 billion scam. Reuters is quoted as saying, “Bernard Madoff, a quiet force on Wall Street for decades, was arrested and charged on Thursday with allegedly running a $50 billion "Ponzi scheme" in what may rank among the biggest fraud cases ever.”

Well, I hate to break the news to you but it’s not the biggest scam. It’s not even close. The largest pyramid scheme is hundreds of times bigger – only we don’t call it a ponzi scheme. It’s better known as that “pay as you go” system we like to call Social Security!

Social Security is hurtling toward bankruptcy in only a few short decades. Here’s a quote from the Social Security Administration’s website:

Many people think that the Social Security taxes they pay are held in interest-bearing accounts earmarked for their own future retirement needs. The fact is that Social Security is a pay-as-you-go retirement system—the Social Security taxes paid by today’s workers and their employers are used to pay the benefits for today’s retirees and other beneficiaries.

Social Security is now taking in more money than it pays out in benefits, and the remaining money goes to the program’s trust funds. There are now large “reserves” in the trust funds, but even this money is small compared to future scheduled benefit payments. In 2017 benefits owed will be more than taxes collect­ed, and Social Security will need to begin tapping the trust funds to pay benefits. The trust funds will be exhausted in 2041. At that time, Social Security will not be able to meet all of its benefit obligations if no changes are made.

There you have it folks. The “pay-as-you-go” system of Social Security is a ponzi scheme by definition.

What annoys me is that a lot of the “victims” of Madoff’s crooked dealings thought they were only benefiting from insider trading and not aware they caught up in a pyramid scam. In that case, it’s hard to feel sorry for those people. But we KNOW that Social Security cannot be sustained yet working class Americans are still shelling over 7.5% of every paycheck only to delay the inevitable.

Why is Madoff making headlines while the train wreck of Social Security is continuously ignored? We need to act now and hold those criminals (aka Congressmen) accountable for this economic disaster!