...but most of the time the real major schemes are in no danger of collapsing as you're not far enough down the parabola yet.
With social security, there is a fundamental and recurring way to keep the parabola from exploding - namely either lower benefits or raise the retirement age. Raising taxes or creating more debt to pay for rising costs will not suffice for obvious reasons.
Well said. Social Security may be a Ponzi scheme in the sense that it pays out based on current contributions, if that is the definition, but it is not an
unstable Ponzi scheme of the type usually connoted by the name.
