is social security a ponzi scheme

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All of American capitalism is a ponzi scheme of sorts. The way our entire system is set up now, we need constant growth or our economy will collapse. Social security is just part of a larger problem. At some point we're going to have to tell our retirees that their standard of living can't be higher than our working population can support, regardless of what the government promised them, regardless of what the market promised them, regardless of societal expectations, regardless of how hard they worked, and regardless of what their bank account says.

^^^
yes. you spoke what i was thinking but i was too slow to say.

"The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it. The process by which banks create money is so simple the mind is repelled. With something so important, a deeper mystery seems only decent." John Kenneth Galbraith writing in 'Money: Whence it came, where it went' (1975).

IOW, IMHO the social security system is but a quasi ponzi scheme nested within the huge ponzi scheme which is our economic system in which money is officially created out of thin air and which presupposes ever greater economic growth ad infinitum. but [speaking figuritively of social security] to borrow a line from elvis, "i'd rather go on hearing your lies, than to go on living without you."

Madoff got away with it for two major reasons.

Firstly because he was very well connected in finance, in large part because he operated a large, high profile, legitimate business in addition to his ponzi scheme, it was hard for regulators to believe that he might not be on the up and up.

Secondly because there is very little that fund managers are compelled to turn over to the SEC unless the SEC is willing to make a criminal case out of it.

Since an SEC investigation normally has a huge negative impact on the investigated, the SEC does not like to take things that far if they don't see that it is clearly necessary.

In short, if you operate a fund, unless the SEC is willing to accuse you of being a criminal, you don't have to explain to them how your fund makes money.