--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius" <anartaxius@...> wrote: <snip> > Entitlements are a pyramid scheme, but there are now so many > people at the top of the pyramid, it's starting to show the > strain. When the system was started, it was much more workable > because so few in the system were at the top of the pyramid.
Entitlements are not pyramid schemes. That's a right- wing meme that does not hold up under examination. Nor is so many people "at the top of the pyramid" the problem. Medicare and Medicaid are in trouble because of rising health-care costs. Social Security is *not* in trouble now; the baby boomers were planned for. The reason we see potential trouble in the distance is because so much of the national income is being sucked up by too few people. That throws the formula for contributions out of whack so that not enough money is coming in to fund Social Security indefinitely. But all that needs to be done is to change the formula--raise the income level at which people stop contributing to the fund.
