A Simple Calculation...
Social Security is, in theory--and so believed by many Americans--a government controlled savings system. You work, you pay, you take your money back out. But...
Let's assume it even worked that way (it doesn't). You pay taxes for the government to do things, which means you would be paying a fee for them to manage your money. You would not get any sort of interest on your money, like you would in the weakest savings account in any private bank. That means your money's real value is less over time.
Let's say the government uses an optimistic 1% of your social security input to manage it. That means you're really getting 99% of the money you put in. Reduce it by an average of ~2.7% per year to adjust for inflation, and after ten years your money is worth, what, 80% or so? I'm guestimating here--it's a relatively complex formula and I'd need to actually use paper or a spread sheet to chart it out--but count on losing at least 15% of your money. That's not including the loss of revenue from any interest or other investments you might make, which could be a very impressive amount of money if you're a skilled or lucky investor.
So even if it worked the way the gummint claims, it's STILL a really shitty deal. Math don't lie, folks. About the only good thing is it keeps
some money out of the hands of the 'Charge it!' crowd, but that's not a fix for irresponsible spending, it's a patch.
On a cheerier note, it looks like rain outside.
