Social Security's winners and losers

In his Feb. 8 letter, Stuart Hibben ’48 makes the following “true”statement: “Over its history, the Social Security Administration has taken in more … than it has paid out ...”

Bernie Madoff, early in his Ponzi scheme, could have made an exactly analogous “true”statement.

The Congressional Budget Office provides (available by simple Web search) analysis of the exorbitant future tax rates (greater than 70 percent, twice the rate paid by Mr. Hibben’s generation) to maintain various programs, including the budget-busting entitlements like (unreformed) Social Security.

Born circa 1927, Mr Hibben is part of a generation that is a lucky Social Security “winner” (payments vs. receipts). Per the CBO and other credible online analyses, the subsequent generations (including those of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren) will be generational losers – losers in a game that is not a voluntary (caveat emptor) game for the gullible, but rather mandatory for all Americans.

Madoff is in jail, his “truth” found to be illegal deception.   I suggest the PAW readership merits a different type of “truth.”