>>Actually it's Social Security that is the largest socialist program in the worlds history - and also, while not perfect, its the most successful in world history too.
Actually Social Security is a classic Ponzi scheme: it's a pay as you go scheme where payments received today are paid out to today's recipients. We all know that using Peter's contributions to pay Paul only works if there's an infinite number of future Peters which is why Ponzi schemes eventually fail. For SS the Ponzi effect happens in the 2030s- or earlier if the older recipient Pauls continue growing in numbers while the number of working Peters shrinks. Peters in their 40s or 50s today may never see anything back from the $ they're paying into SS. Meanwhile beneficiary Pauls insist that the inadequate taxes they paid still entitle them to benefits as they sit fiercely atop their asset piles that they insist are tribute to their own prowess.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1