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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Social Security,Pyramids, Banks and Insurance
Message-ID: <1736@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 27-Nov-85 20:31:59 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.1736
Posted: Wed Nov 27 20:31:59 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Nov-85 22:25:01 EST
References: <591@drutx.UUCP> <826@whuxl.UUCP> <281@pyuxii.UUCP>
Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 29
Summary: 


>Sevener obviously does not know the difference between
>a Ponzi scheme and a pyramid scheme.  They are NOT the
>same thing Sevener.  The Ponzi scheme depends on only
>taking in money with a promise to pay out more than was
>paid in.  The first group of "investors" are paid a
>
>I'm not saying that SS is going to run off with the
>money.  It is just that the Ponzi principle of paying
>out more than is taken in applies to SS.  Now, with
>T. C. Wheeler

Isn't the whole idea of a productive enterprise in the capitalist
system to be able to get more out of it than you pay in?
Under Wheeler's definitions, all businesses must be Ponzi schemes.

Various people have said that you can't consider Social Security as
carrying interest because it wasn't invested.  That seems very strange.
Are all those millions, billions, or trillions of dollars in a hole
in the ground?  They can't be in banks, because money in banks is used
for loans and so forth, that assist capitalistic enterprises.  Is it
withdrawn from the economy until the person who payed a particular
dollar shows up in old age to claim it?  How does this non-productive
accumulation of capital mature?
-- 

Martin Taylor
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