[Chuchnit]

So the other day I was sitting around mainly thinking about the pathetic financial situation of the US federal government. Then it hit me, most of our federal budget is nothing more than a giant ponzi scheme. The overwhelming majority of our federal budget is entitlement programs; social security, medicare, medicaid, s-chip, etc.

So what is a ponzi scheme? Well in basic terms it works like this. I tell all OCA hwbot members that if they give me money I promise a good return through investment. The trick is that I'm not going to invest any of their money. I'm gonna spend it. Since I'm so successful , I open up the offer to all OCA members and eventually all forums. In reality I am needing the new investors to come in with their money to pay the "profits" to the OCA hwbot members. For this to work I need new investors in perpetuity.

Ok so I made the bold statement that our government is running a giant ponzi scheme. So lets look at Social Security first. Its the one that most people feel that they "own" a part of and probably the most popular entitlement of all. In the 1930's that wonderful president Franklin Roosevelt came up with this grand thing called "Social Security". It was the saving grace for the older people during the great depression. There is a huge arguement that that rat bastard prolonged the depression with his shit policies, but that's for another day. So how it started was on the wrong foot but here ya go.

When the program was first started you could opt in or out of paying the tax. Obviously the latter option meant you weren't entitled to benefits later. So it already started out bad. From day one taxes payed in went to elderly people who never payed into the system. Now how it was sold was that they would just "save" the money for you and pay you when you were old. Eventually this didn't work so the wonderful people in DC took the opt out option away and made everyone pay into the system. I think this was under Lyndon B. Johnson. Of course that lame ass created Medicare/Medicaid and expanded social security to offer SS/I benefits. Every generation since the programs inception it has taken more and more workers to pay for each individual recieving benefits today. To throw salt in the wounds, our wonderfully wise leaders also use the funds for the program, which is supposed to be "under lock and key", to lend money to themselves via US gov't bond purchases. Another of the classy moves they make is to just flat out stick their hand in the cookie jar.

Ok so where are we today and how can I tie all this rambling together? How crazy am I? I mean there are legit arguements that say I'm off my rocker. One of the most legit arguements that even I rangle with is the largest difference of all. The US gov't. via the constitution is granted power to levy taxes upon the citizens. The people aren't willingly investing the money. I will admit the validity of the arguement on the surface, but when you break it down to just plain common sense I do believe I am right.

While I don't agree with 90% of these entitlement programs, I honestly think that almost all that voted them in had the greatest intentions for creating something good for the people. In the end power and corruption that is Washington, DC proved that with good intentions or not, people would use it as a piggy bank. I think it was Milton Friedman himself who said that government officials will spend all of the taxe revenues PLUS borrow as much money as they think they can get away with.

So here's where we are today. For generations and accross both spectrums of political parties we have used social security funds to basically cover up deficits and pay for unfunded liabilities. Of course we hear about the projected bankruptcy date but its so far away that it doesn't seem real. Still to this day though they continue to promise our returns will be there for all the taxes we've paid in. The problem is that less and less people (investors) are putting money into the system. Basically they are running out of new investors to pay the old ones. Just a couple ago it was announced that something like 46% of Americans don't pay any taxes into the sytem once they recieve all the credits and tax breaks. Actually most of them recieve more money back than they paid in during the year.

Sadly I think in my lifetime or the lifetime of my daughter Old Glory will fall due to financial reasons. Entitlement programs will be the number one cause. In the end with the current loss of actual paying taxpayers the ponzi scheme will fall. Just like Madoff. I will say that I didn't reference any sources while typing this, but rather its my own thoughts and knowledge I have gathered from sources on both sides of the isle. If you find a mistake in my arguement please correct me. If I sound like a fooking crazy ass, lemme know. I gots the thick skin and love to debate.