Roosevelt, Bismarck, Ponzi and Tonti had better ideas

Roosevelt, Bismarck, Ponzi and Tonti had better ideas

EDITOR:

A Jan. 6 column by Charles Murray asked the question, “Is Social Security a great Ponzi Scheme?” The answer is a resounding no. It was intended as set up by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who modeled it after Otto von Bismarck’s plan from the late 19th Century, a Tontine based annuity plan.

A Ponzi scheme, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, “is a form of fraud in which belief in the success of a fictive enterprise is fostered by payment of quick returns to first investors from money invested by others.” The date of that fraud was 1919-20.

A Tontine, as envisioned by the Florentine banker Lorenzo Tonti in 1653, is “a financial scheme by which the subscribers to a loan or common fund receive each an annuity during his life, which increases as their number is diminished by death, till the last survivor enjoys the whole income.” Such have been formed for building houses, hotels, baths, etc. A modified form is the basis for most insurance programs today.

Obviously, Tonti preceded Bismarck by 300 years, and Bismarck was Reichchancellor of Germany 40 plus years before Ponzi.

If there is any fraud involved, it is the fraud perpetrated by the U.S. Congress in raiding it to pursue their own agendas, making the typical politician’s promise that the money would be paid back sometime.

Mr. Murray has some good points in his op ed article. Unfortunately, they are badly compromised by his half baked and sloppy research methodology, starting from a fallacious premise. I learned much more from the hardbound Oxford English Dictionary than he did online. If I were a college professor, I would give him a D, which, on the graduate level, would be fatal.

If Social Security is to be reformed, Congress will have to start with FDR’s (and Bismarck’s) original idea.

JEROME K. STEPHENS

Warren

A story about nice people

EDITOR:

You hear so much about people who do bad things, I thought I’d tell you about a bunch of good people.

A few days ago I went to Super K to get some groceries and after checking out really felt like I was going to pass out. I asked the cashier if there was a place to sit down for awhile. I felt if I could do that I would feel better. She alerted the floor manager who was the nicest person. She got me a wheelchair to sit in and had the stock boy get me a glass of ice water. That was a big help.

I was parked quite a distance away. So they pushed me and my groceries to my car. The two ladies behind me in line, Sara and her daughter Shaia, followed me. Sara said she did not want me to drive home, even though I told her I could drive, but she insisted on driving me home and her daughter followed. When I got home, they carried my groceries into the house.

They were all the nicest people I’ve ever met, from the store employees to the two ladies who stopped their shopping to help me.

PAT BAKER

Warren