Cato's Pilon: Perry Correct on Social Security

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is getting a lot of attention for calling Social Security a “monstrous lie.” And Roger Pilon, vice president of legal affairs for the Cato Institute says the Texas governor is right.

“Give Rick Perry credit: he had the courage to call Social Security a Ponzi scheme, which it is,” Pilon wrote on Politico.

“As with all such schemes, early entrants got something for nothing (or very little). Late entrants will get nothing for something. Social Security started with 16 contributors for every recipient. It's now down to fewer than 3, and headed for 2. It's unsustainable, as Perry said. A private company that ran such a scheme would be prosecuted in less than a New York minute. We should be grateful that a major candidate has finally spoken truth to fiction.”