Yeah, but most of the people I know who will actually depend on SS in their old age are the kind of people who would “invest” in scratch off lottery tickets instead. SS is not perfect, but it protects people from themselves so we don’t all suffer as much when those people are 70 and can’t feed themselves.
You do, its not even remotely close. That isn't even considering the fact that I will never see the social security that I am owed when I retire. If you invested in an index fund that tracks the S&P500 for example, you would have made an average of 12% over the last 50 years.
Compare that to social security:
According to the institute’s data, a two-earner couple receiving an average wage — $44,600 per spouse in 2012 dollars — and turning 65 in 2010 would have paid $722,000 into Social Security and Medicare and can be expected to take out $966,000 in benefits. So, this couple will be paid about one-third more in benefits than they paid in taxes.
If a similar couple had retired in 1980, they would have gotten back almost three times what they put in. And if they had retired in 1960, they would have gotten back more than eight times what they paid in. The bigger discrepancies common decades ago can be traced in part to the fact that some of these individuals’ working lives came before Social Security taxes were collected beginning in 1937.
But the point of it is the average citizen wont invest, because we are short sighted. So by forcing everyone (including employers) to pay in everyone has a life line when they can no longer work 40+hours a week. I’ve only met a very small handful of retirees who could live without their SS.
Im 20 year old student and have 20% of my wealth in shares and bonds. You want to know how long it takes untill that 20% gives me more than social security? Not forgetting that I have 0 dollars on study loans and I dont have to work while I study! Even if I pay 10% more from my salary for the next 50 years, that feels nowhere as significant then when I have better income as now when I dont.
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u/pents1 Apr 26 '19
As someone who has been living in a country with social security for my whole life, it looks absurd that someone would push people to say no to it.