Keith, I will agree that Social Security is a legal Ponzi Scheme. The taxes paid today pay the benefits of todays retirees.

It's worse than that. It is outright theft by fraud.

If taxes paid any appreciable portion of today's benefits then explain why they require new money creation and are subject to curtailment if they run into a debt ceiling standoff. The taxation and bond issues implemented were never meant to be "funding mechanisms" for the program, but only to provide a legal claim to beneficiaries in the event a Republican-dominated Congress decided to scuttle the entire program outright.

Since then, pensions have disappeared. Companies realized they are simply too expensive so they dropped them to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation in the late 1970’s.

This may be simply proof of FDR's assertion that the private sector under capitalism can't be trusted to provide for its workers and that the legal demand the tax imposes on government might be necessary. However, I believe we should be more economically evolved by now and the feudalistic realities of the '20s and '30s should be obsolete.

The only thing keeping them alive is the econ ignorance of the voters who still relate their own econ/budgeting as "currency users" with that of the federal government which is the monopoly "currency issuer" of a sovereign fiat currency. A sudden econ epiphany affecting a large portion of the population would not bode well for employers, capitalists, or the politicians that sold out to them.

I will disagree that taxation is bad.

I never stated that "taxation" is bad. I simply stated that it doesn't "fund" anything at the federal level, including Social Security. Ditto with bonds. Both only reduce a mostly meaningless (unless you are a politician needing something to explain why America can't afford nice things like other countries take for granted) debt/deficit and draw down reserves in the banking system. When elders end up in the street after working their entire lives while a very small percentage of the population accumulates more wealth than many small countries there is a problem at the core of the economy and the government.

The best way to deal with taxation is to make the wealthy irrelevant to the economy and the public purpose by disconnecting "revenue" at the federal level (all other entities are revenue constrained) and the spending needed to assure the guarantees of our Constitution to everyone. If the economy is at less than 100% employment at any time it means the government has spent too little, taxed too much, or both, or has misdirected its spending/taxation.

Our current government is guilty of all of the above and that is why the economy crashes at shorter and shorter intervals and wages fall steadily as it relies entirely on the business cycle and money borrowed in the private sector to fund its public purpose spending. This is patently absurd for a sovereign currency-issuing government that needs no "revenue" to spend.

We need to reclaim our goverment to have it work in our benefit rather than the people who own corporations. Eliminate gerrymandering-all districts must be competitive — there may be no “safe” districts. Eliminate Citizen’s United. If it doesn’t Breath, Bleed nor Breed it doesn’t need a political voice. Finally, if the Government Agency isn’t capable of producing auditable books, its funding gets decreased by 10% per year they can’t produce auditable books.

I agree with most of this. However, with the current level of econ literacy among the general population, made worse by the myths and lies supported by our representatives, we are likely to end up much worse off if we achieve those objectives too soon. A simple balanced budget amendment, supported by a considerable majority of voters in their ignorance, would destroy our economy is less time than it would take to remedy the error once it is stamped in stone in our Constitution.

It's good to get mad at inequities and express yourself, but if you do it without informing yourself of reality and fact you are part of the problem, not the solution. Your government has become your enemy (or a best friend of your enemies) only because you continue to perpetuate the lies and myths it presents.