Being 32, I fail to understand how it benefits my bottom line.

The theory is that you both a) have relatives/other people that you care about that benefit from this, and b) that you will benefit from it when it's your turn to live even longer.

Of course, it's yet to be seen how well b) will play out in practice.

Maybe they do benefit from this. I fail to see how it converts into an obligation for me.

I care about X. X would like to recieve money backed by my payments. Does that mean I owe them those payments?

How well do Ponzi schemes play out in practice?

There is no inherent obligation. Where I'm from, though, we've voted for governments that make it one.

So you thrown bad money towards Ponzi scheme. Can I now stop throwing good money towards it?

Note that "we voted to confiscate your assets" is NOT a valid vote. "No taxation without representation" fails where we have no hope to recover what we've wasted here.

Or, as you seem to be suggesting, we're just waiting for a big crash while making sure it will be real big, while crunching in process.

Not if you're from my country, because it's the law for you to throw money to it.

But yes, it appears we're waiting for a big crash, which is likely the result of those who __are__ likely to profit from it represent a substantive portion of the electorate, resulting in our leaders being reluctant in finding other/better systems.

We already know that b) is not going to work in practice, because of the population curve. So, there's that. Why should you pay for something you will never get yourself?

Because of a), and because we don't have an alternative for b) yet, but whatever we might come up with might be bootstrapped with these payments.

How can we bootstrap anything with those payments, where they all go to the retired already? Can't spend same payments twice. And the balance isn't becoming better here.

They don't all go to the retired (at least, not where I'm from). A lot of it is reinvested in order to save for future retirements.

But yes, the bootstrapping is still an interesting problem.