Great observation by Don Boudreaux in a letter to the editor of the New York Times:

“Like many people, Ben Stein was assured that Bernard Madoff “never lost money” (”They Told Me That Madoff Never Lost Money,” December 28).  Unlike many people, Ben Stein wisely understood this assurance to be nonsense.

Americans should apply Mr. Stein’s wisdom to the greatest Ponzi scheme going: Social Security.  Many pols and pundits assure us that this program is a great financial deal for ordinary Americans.  But in principle Social Security is identical to Mr. Madoff’s fraudulent scheme: rather than generate wealth through productive investments, both schemes transfer wealth from newer ‘investors’ to older ‘investors.’  As long as a sufficient number of newer ‘investors’ keep coming aboard - either by being duped a la Mr. Madoff or by being coerced a la Social Security - such schemes appear brilliant.  This appearance, however, is a dangerous apparition.”

From Chris’s Color Commentary:

“Little did I know, until a recent exposure to this concept at certain gala event, that banks really are villainous monstrosities.  I was not aware that banks gave loans.  I was always under the naive assumption that people asked for them.  Silly me.”

From Consectatio:

“…let me get this straight. We are going to seize people’s private savings and force them to deposit a percentage of their earned income into a “guaranteed retirement account”. That sounds roughly like Social Security to me… I suppose that is why it makes sense to have this new account be managed by the Social Security Administration…

…This sounds strikingly similar to the definition of the “guaranteed retirement account”, so why is this proposal gaining any ground whatsoever? Is it because we don’t currently have a “guaranteed” social security?”