<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/54060a9b-5dc5-4196-bc5e-b67151ac5469/5BBB9AF5-3E20-4F5D-B36F-92A8770B5300/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20081229145240.aspx" href="http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20081229145240.aspx" style="font-size: 11px;">www.businessandmedia.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20081229145240.aspx"><P class="MsoNormal"><SPAN>Like many people, Ben Stein was assured that Bernard Madoff "never lost money" ("<A target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/business/28every.html">They Told Me That Madoff Never Lost Money</A>," Dec. 28). Unlike many people, Ben Stein wisely understood this assurance to be nonsense.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></p> <P class="MsoNormal"><SPAN><O:P> </O:P></SPAN></p> <P class="MsoNormal"><SPAN>Americans should apply Mr. Stein's wisdom to the greatest Ponzi scheme going: Social Security.<SPAN>  </SPAN>Many pols and pundits assure us that this program is a great financial deal for ordinary Americans. But in principle Social Security is identical to Mr. Madoff's fraudulent scheme: rather than generate wealth through productive investments, both schemes transfer wealth from newer 'investors' to older 'investors.' As long as a sufficient number of newer 'investors' keep coming aboard – either by being duped a la Mr. Madoff or by being coerced a la Social Security – such schemes appear brilliant. This appearance, however, is a dangerous apparition.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></p> <P class="MsoNormal"><SPAN><O:P> </O:P></SPAN></p> <P class="MsoNormal"><SPAN>Sincerely,<O:P></O:P></SPAN></p> <P class="MsoNormal"><SPAN>Donald J. Boudreaux</SPAN><SPAN><O:P> </O:P></SPAN></P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/5BBB9AF5-3E20-4F5D-B36F-92A8770B5300/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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