Social Security: communistic version of Chinese retirement plan

Comment to MarketWatch "Schooled by scandal: Commentary: Madoff case shows investors the red flags of financial advice" in response to comparison of Social Security to Ponzi scheme:

I'd argue on that. Social Security is more of the communistic flavored Chinese retirement plan (that is, Chinese retirement but made more communistic than Chinese do). Let me explain.

In China there is no (at least there was no until lately) retirement plans at all. If you grew old and sick you should have raised children who'd take care of you. Your family is your 401(K). If you did not put enough into your 401(K) - children, well, tough luck. Ponzi scheme or not, this sort of retirement plan was used by humans since we become humans. Unfortunately it does not work in industrial societies where most salaries are pushed below the level where worker can support anybody but him/herself. While most people here are more fortunate, check "Nickel and dimed", so some social solution was necessary.

Social Security is a kind of communistic version of such retirement plan, where all the children are pulled together and forced through payroll deductions to support all aging people.

As any communistic ideas it has some problems with longevity. It also hurts our family values. I bet, if people would look at family as 401(K) retirement savings and not as a way to get regular sex on budget, we'd have much less divorces and much more children per family.

However, doing it in an "honest" way has some problems too. Imagine the state accumulating money for you from the time you graduated from college for 40-50 years. Nation-wide it's a huge pile of money. Can you imagine the temptation politicians and financial guys (like Madoff) would have to use that money on some of their pet projects and us standing in the way? It's like standing between a hungry bulldog and a bunch of sausages.