B.S. part highlighted. Government acts or reacts to preseve itself, not because it's "the right thing to do", or to meet an actual need.

More of a pyramid scheme. Ponzi schemes work on the promise of large payouts compared to the initial investment. S.S. promises even money (if all goes well) to a loss (if nothing changes). A ponzi scheme would be a big slot machine that you have the choice to feed or not. S.S. is more like a change machine, that you're forced to put your bills into and you may or may not get equal change out based on some conversion factor.

Do you pay property taxes?

IIRC, you have no kids....part of your tax dollars go to fund the education of other children.

Not fair to you, is it?

I do. We put in a group Metlife LTC policy a couple of years ago. I have lingering old cardiac issues that made it prohibitive or impossible to obtain LTC coverage on my own. In our group plan, the firm pays 1,000 and the individual pays the rest. We limit it to those over 55 and those and or 10 years of employment. The best feature, IMO, is it's transportable. Leave the firm, and pick up the premiums your self. I picked coverage at $200.00 per day, inflation rider at 5% per year. My weekly cost is $23.00 pretax under the cafeteria plan (fixed since inception). Annual cost 2,195. Two years coverage.

OK. I follow you. Yes, I do agree that the govt will do it out of self preservation and because they think they can reap some benefits of it. Poorly worded, perhaps

No it isn't. I suppose that I do get some use out of it from the standpoint that the wife and I do take some classes at the local CC but even with that, I do agree that it is a scam.