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It is neither an investment nor fraudulent. Joel Send a noteboard - 12/03/2013 02:34:09 AM

View original postI'm not sure how much clearer I can make this. A Ponzi scheme is "A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation. "

My disagreement revolves entirely around the word fraudulent. I follow the legal definition of fraud:

In the United States, common law recognizes nine elements constituting fraud:
1. a representation of an existing fact;
2. its materiality;
3. its falsity;
4. the speaker's knowledge of its falsity;
5. the speaker's intent that it shall be acted upon by the plaintiff;
6. the plaintiff's ignorance of its falsity;
7. the plaintiff's reliance on the truth of the representation;
8. the plaintiff's right to rely upon it; and
9. consequent damages suffered by the plaintiff.

Fraud requires all nine of those be established, more than one could be debated especially outside of intent to convict in court, but #4 is a safe bet, because unless someone wants to name a specific individual it is pretty obvious most liberals believe SS is not an innately flawed construct.

So, again, I do not consider it a Ponzi Scheme because I do not believe it was fraudulent, my disagreement with the others is essentially the difference between two people debating if an astrologer is a fraud or not, one saying she is and the other saying she believes in it thus not a fraud, but both agreeing there is little to no reason to believe in her forecasts.

I do not know how this keeps confusing you, and I am more than passing angry at what seems like a deliberate misreading of my comments. Especially when they are so clear and this disagreement with others of the type you suggest does not seem to exist in their eyes either.


Try Merriam-Websters definition (below linked:) ": an investment swindle in which some early investors are paid off with money put up by later ones in order to encourage more and bigger risks." Social Security is not a swindle, but was also never predicated on its benefits encouraging more and bigger risks. Also, a characteristic Ponzi feature is requiring ever and impossibly more future investors to pay current ones in a short enough period to satisfy promises of not only large but FAST returns, usually within months or even weeks. Because SS does not promise returns within weeks or months, but after decades, and the US population will continue growing for the foreseeable future, the very factors that doom Ponzis to insolvency make Social Security inherently sustainable.

As noted in another response, simply removing the witholding limit, with no other change to benefits or payments, would allow SS to pay each current beneficiary $11,000/year with half a million dollars left over. That is just over $900/year, but even if the contributor/beneficiary ratio dropped from the current 2.73 to the supposed 2.0 SS could still maintain current average benefits indefinitely simply by removing the witholding limit. We can debate whether that is fair to contributors and/or beneficiaries, but NOT whether it is TRUE; that is cold hard mathematical fact, regardless of why one chooses to disbelieve the forecast.

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Can You Name the Largest US Program to ANNUALLY Collect More Than It Spent for 75 Straight Years? - 28/02/2013 11:03:18 PM 1302 Views
It's the world's greatest Ponzi scheme, since the government forces us to give money to it. - 01/03/2013 01:05:05 PM 741 Views
Yes, "government forcing people to give money" defines a Ponzi; speeding tickets are Ponzis. - 01/03/2013 03:53:02 PM 867 Views
Good lord my friend..... - 02/03/2013 04:19:35 AM 782 Views
I will just link what Isaac said; maybe then you will pay attention to it. - 02/03/2013 04:56:34 AM 822 Views
I really think you terribly misread what I said *NM* - 02/03/2013 06:59:56 AM 430 Views
Yes he did. He has very poor reading comprehension skills. *NM* - 03/03/2013 01:07:59 AM 457 Views
I really do not think I did. - 04/03/2013 01:43:02 AM 859 Views
I'm pretty confident you have - 04/03/2013 11:49:19 AM 845 Views
We evidently disagree on what constitutes a Ponzi scheme. - 11/03/2013 09:56:27 PM 767 Views
No, I agree with a clear definiton, you seem not to want to absorb that - 11/03/2013 10:24:47 PM 911 Views
It is neither an investment nor fraudulent. - 12/03/2013 02:34:09 AM 981 Views
Okay, that's a really weird or naive standard to judge SS by - 01/03/2013 05:25:11 PM 788 Views
Great; will you put that on a postcard to Cannoli, A2K, Rick Perry and the rest of your party? - 01/03/2013 07:39:44 PM 815 Views
Your attacks on republican ideals would have more credit if you understood them - 02/03/2013 04:27:34 AM 797 Views
aH yes the great liberal investmetn/retirement plan that offers me a NEGATIGVE rate of return... - 02/03/2013 11:51:50 AM 712 Views
Do you sincerely believe people earning $14,560/year can afford investing 4% of it? - 04/03/2013 12:53:30 AM 876 Views
*sigh* - 04/03/2013 03:43:08 AM 706 Views
I tried it with compound interest; $44.80/month at 4% for 50 years still does not get to $1.25 mill. - 04/03/2013 04:24:51 AM 788 Views
Here are some clues. - 04/03/2013 04:37:39 AM 650 Views
It is math, not the Riddle of the Sphinx: EIther it adds up or does not. - 04/03/2013 05:02:39 AM 803 Views
Math is simple - Either you know how to calculate it or you don't - 04/03/2013 11:55:24 AM 880 Views
Indeed. - 11/03/2013 09:53:59 PM 789 Views
Re: Indeed. - 13/03/2013 05:00:10 PM 972 Views
SS is supposed to supplement a proper pension, not provide your sole income after retirement - 05/03/2013 03:53:03 AM 667 Views
Did you bother to actually read anything? - 05/03/2013 02:32:16 PM 735 Views
do *YOU* know what "living in poverty" means? - 05/03/2013 05:49:14 PM 802 Views
Re: do *YOU* know what "living in poverty" means? --- yeah, I've BEEN there. - 05/03/2013 08:01:33 PM 777 Views
how about respond to a post with logic and civility instead of being a troll for once? - 05/03/2013 11:03:00 PM 860 Views
All I have used is civility and logic, or least as much civility as was warrented. - 06/03/2013 04:28:04 AM 810 Views
yeah, it's my fault for stooping to your level.... - 08/03/2013 07:22:24 PM 851 Views
Re: yeah, it's my fault for stooping to your level.... - 10/03/2013 01:42:26 PM 721 Views
i'm not going to keep going in circles so i will finish with this.... - 11/03/2013 10:08:53 PM 1069 Views
No loss. - 13/03/2013 04:37:41 PM 662 Views
"Rah! Rah! Rah!" Can we please cut out all this blather and bile? - 05/03/2013 11:53:41 PM 738 Views
spoken like a true enemy of the state! - 06/03/2013 12:54:38 AM 709 Views
Re: spoken like a true enemy of the state! - 08/03/2013 03:04:37 PM 764 Views
I was not trolling, but clarifying. - 11/03/2013 09:53:48 PM 786 Views

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