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Comment by skhunted | Hacker News Reader

> If the government decided to make Social Security a private corporation it could No, it couldn’t. There were promises made with the full faith and credit of the United Stares.

I'm not a lawyer so I'll rephrase. In an alternate universe the U.S. government created a corporation to run Social Security. It mandated that people participate in it. Everyone called it a pension system because that it what it is.

Congress can amend them at will.

All pension systems are subject to amendment. Many pension systems have been amended over the years.

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> In an alternate universe the U.S. government created a corporation to run Social Security. It mandated that people participate in it. Everyone called it a pension system because that it what it is

If the U.S. then explicitly guaranteed that corporation's liabilities, sure.

> All pension systems are subject to amendment. Many pension systems have been amended over the years

No. Many state legislatures, for instance, are constitutionally prohibited from fucking with certain obligations, commonly pensions.

> Many state legislatures, for instance, are constitutionally prohibited from fucking with certain obligations, commonly pensions.

Which is a serious problem. The entire idea of a truly guaranteed pension is not feasible and always leads to a pyramid scheme and then insolvency.

> entire idea of a truly guaranteed pension is not feasible and always leads to a pyramid scheme and then insolvency

Sure. But the point of full faith and credit is it's irreversible. (Actually, the point of credit, period. You can't declare your past debts pyramid schemes and unilaterally absolve yourself of them.)

Irreversibly, like all political concepts, is a fiction that humans choose to believe in rather than a law of physics. If social security became insolvent while the US was distracted by some other future national crisis, I'm certain that the people of the future would find a way to cut the pension while staying within the letter of the law (probably via inflation or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRgRz3nSG7o).

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