Do "liberals" know what compound arithmetic is? If so, do they also know how to do it?

[Edgar]

If so, when it comes to entitlements (esp. Medicaid & Medicare), what happens inside their heads when the numbers show these programs, as presently constituted, are nothing more than Ponzi schemes well on their way to collapse?

I won't even bring Obamacare into The Conversation, as it's still unknown how much worse that program is going to make things.

[Fred]

You just managed to show the entire world that you're a delusional dumbf**k that can't read or do any of the aforementioned arithmetic you allude to. Look up "corporate entitlements" jackass. What do your stellar math skills tell you?

[Dave87gn]

medicare and medicaid are funded through payroll taxes..unlike Bush tax cuts which the govt Borrowed money to mail back to rich people...and every year since then, we borrow money to pay the interest only on the money we borrowed to send to rich people

[BILL]

You should realize that GDP is subject to the same compounding as entitlements are. You are being fooled by sombody's voodoo math, while yelling at us for not understanding math.

Also, the basis of a Ponzi scheme is that the end investors don't get paid. Social Security and Medicare are not Ponzi schemes because participants actually get paid their benefits. Unless of course Republicans manage to end those programs. Then they really would be Ponzi schemes.

[Cephalopod]

In a Ponzi scheme, someone fraudulently gets you to invest in some scheme, with false promises of it being advantageous to you.

So, who is this Ponzi in the US health system, well from the source.
In 2009, the health insurance companies INCREASED their profits by 56%, to $12.2 billion and yet they reduced their coverage by 2.7 million people!!!

So, who is Mr Ponzi in this scheme??

[Man of Steel]

You sir are a joke.

[lare]

SSA is not a "compound" or Ponzi. It is a transfer. People who are working pay in so that people who are retired can collect.

The current USA workforce, the total paying FICA tax is 168 million. The current total of retirees drawing social security is 56 million with an average benefit of $1200/mo. Why is the benefit more than the FICA tax you pay? because you work typically 45 years and live 15 years after retirement, that is a 3:1 compression that allows taking money out faster than put in. so you need to contribute $400 per month to sustain this ratio. Half of this is contributed by your employer, so that is a $200 FICA deduction from your average monthly paycheck. The media salary is about $5000/mo and FICA for that is 7.5% or $375. So with current statistics, SSA is taking in more money than it pays in benefits. $70 B more in 2011, and has accrued a $2.6 T surplus to date.

The system is not a Ponzi, every person that contributes will get the benefit earned. Those benefits are earned, that is why they are called "entitlements" and not "give away" or "dole". It is a transfer tax collected on current workers to pay benefits to current retirees. This is a more efficient plan than stuffing current contributions into a shoe box to collect 30-40 years later.

Why is there a surplus? because not every generation produces the same number of workers, the generation born right after WW2 was a boom. Those boomers are nearing retirement so the surplus is there for them to draw down. The last tweak to the system was done under Ronald Reagan (a Republican) and corrects for the boomer imbalance.