In the last GOP presidential debate Governor Rick Perry was challenged on his claim, made in his book Fed Up, that Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme. I agree with Rush Limbaugh that it is worse than that. As Limbaugh facetiously said "Ponzi Schemes are voluntary, Social Security is not."
Case in point: The first person to draw social security payments was a woman named Ida Mae Fuller.
- Fuller paid a total of $24.78 into the system.
- In 1939, at the age of 65, she started drawing $22.54/month.
- She lived to the age of 100.
- She drew $22,888.92 from the system; a 92,000% return on her investment.
