No Social Security is not a ponzi scheme....

It has become de rigueur, of late amongst Republicans to attack Social Security as a ponzi scheme. Gov. Rick Perry has been the most vocal recently. Of course this completely incorrect! And to help us illustrate that....a venn diagram!


Via Ezra Klein:

As he explains, a Ponzi scheme is a fraud that relies on new investors being unaware of the program’s financing mechanism. Social Security is a fully transparent system of age-based redistribution that releases regular actuarial reports explaining, in great detail, how it is financed now, and what it will need to be fully financed into the future. Or, as Russell Long (apparently) put it, “Social Security is nothing more than a promise to a group of people that their children will be taxed for that group’s benefit.” You may like that structure or you may hate it, but it’s not a Ponzi scheme.

Yeah...I know government is evil...

-Cheers