Elon Musk called Social Security the 'biggest Ponzi scheme of all time'

Elon Musk called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme," raising doubts that the world's richest man is only hoping to privatize the Social Security system that has existed since the 1930s - and has helped millions of elderly, poor, and disabled people in the United States escape poverty. This billionaire argued on Friday on the podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience" that the US government is "a big pyramid scheme" before criticizing Social Security as "the largest Ponzi scheme of all time". When asked to clarify, Musk said, "Yes, everyone pays into Social Security and the money is immediately transferred out of Social Security, but the obligation to Social Security is your entire retirement career. If you look at the future obligations of Social Security, it far exceeds tax revenue." Musk, the overseer of Trump's federal spending initiative, the Office of Government Efficiency, also said that "people are living much longer than expected" and therefore the government's debt obligations "will be much worse in the future". He is not the first conservative to describe Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme," referring to a form of fraud in which current customers receive payments from the investment of new customers. The Social Security Administration said they may face a funding shortfall by 2035. But many Democratic party members argue that the program's funding should only be strengthened by eliminating the Social Security tax cap for high-income earners, meaning those who earn more money will have to contribute more to the program. In his live broadcast, Musk shared false statements about Social Security. Musk said, "Just by a basic search in the Social Security database, we found that 20 million people who were marked as dead are actually alive," prompting talk show host Joe Rogan to question whether these presumed dead individuals actually received money and how much they received. "Some of them are getting paid," Musk said. He made similar comments last month, falsely claiming that "tens of millions" of dead people were receiving Social Security benefits. That misconception, in part, stems from how data is labeled in the Social Security Administration's software system, The Associated Press reported. A 2024 report from the SSA's inspector general found that less than 1% of payments were incorrect from 2015 to 2022, and most of those were overpayments to living people. Musk's comments on Social Security come as the agency is facing significant layoffs. On Thursday, he told employees there would be a major restructuring related to "significant workforce reductions". On Thursday, Senator Bernie Sanders I-Vt. condemned the ongoing attacks on Social Security. Sanders wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that: "Social security helps 18 million elderly people escape poverty each year". The senior senator advanced, who has proposed a law to expand social welfare, added, "Trump and Musk are lying about it for a reason: so they can cut, privatize, and dismantle it. We need to EXPAND social welfare, not cut it."

After Musk's speech on Rogan's podcast, many social media users expressed outrage at his stance.