It's pretty darned bad:
If the pattern holds, the generation after that will get back 50 cents on a dollar. Those middle-aged and under will never see the money come their way that they themselves shelled out. In my mid-40s, I'm under no illusion that I will receive any Medicare at all as the program is currently bankrupt and won't be around a decade from now save 2. Same with social security that is now running a permanent deficit and will be gone by the time I stand to benefit from it. From
NCPA via
HA headlines, this is the sort of Ponzi scheme that sent Bernie Madoff to jail:
...Why does Medicare favor the old and discriminate against the young? Because like Social Security, Medicare finances work like a chain letter. Although workers have been repeatedly told that their payroll taxes are being securely held in trust funds, they are actually being spent—the very minute, the very hour, the very day they arrive in the Treasury’s bank account.
No money has been saved. No investments have been made. No cash has been stashed away in bank vaults. Today’s payroll tax payments are being spent to pay medical bills for today’s retirees. And if any surplus materializes, it’s spent on other government programs. As a result, when today’s workers reach the eligibility age of 65, they will be able to get benefits only if future taxpayers pay (higher) taxes to support them.
Read the whole thing.
