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Krugman is missing the elephant in the room. The most obvious comparison to Madoff's scheme is Social Security. New funds fuel current payouts, and the entire s
by jpcx01 18y ago
Krugman is missing the elephant in the room. The most obvious comparison to Madoff's scheme is Social Security. New funds fuel current payouts, and the entire system rests on the addition of new members (population growth) which is why its insolvent as our population levels off in the next 30 years.
Luckily the government isnt crazy enough to promise extraordinary returns on your social security contributions, however once the funds run out for the current recipients, watch our forced contribution be raised sky high to keep paying it out.
Bad times ahead. But thats the predetermined path for a Ponzi scheme, no matter what the size.
- captainobvious 18y agoAre you talking about medicare or social security? If we took a little under half of the increase in defense spending in the ~2002-2006 period, social security could be made solvent for the next 75 years: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6514572148606053094#18m55s http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6514572148606053094... It isn't exactly out of our capacity to do. We just have to stop blowing things up and destroying wealth.