Image by wallyg via FlickrBy Michelle SingletaryPerhaps nothing gets some people madder than if you trash their mama or dare to talk about Social Security.
I frequently get mail from folks who think Social Security is just a government-sanctioned Ponzi scheme, a con game in which money from new investors is used to pay earlier investors. Eventually, the con collapses when not enough new money comes in to settle with existing participants.
Critics of Social Security say the explanation fits because as the U.S. population grows older, the cost of running the entitlement program will outpace revenue coming in. Under current law, dedicated resources are projected to become insufficient to pay full benefits in 2039, the Congressional Budget Office says.
The discussion about what to do with Social Security not only is divisive but at times can get very ugly. Former Sen. Alan Simpson, the co-chairman of President Obama's bipartisan debt commission, got in trouble recently for saying this about Social Security: "We've reached a point now where it's like a milk cow with 310 million tits!"
Although Simpson has apologized for his colorful language, the sentiment he expressed is still felt by many.
President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on Aug. 14, 1935. Since then, it has unquestionably kept millions of people -- most importantly, the elderly and disabled -- from the depths of poverty.
Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme. Nor are people milking the program to live the high life. How many people could live richly off $1,000 a month, which is the current average monthly benefit for all beneficiaries?
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