I used to see it that way, until someone I know became disabled and had an immediate need for disability, and was turned down. It takes something like three years to prevail if you, like the majority of people, are turned down, and if you don't have a support network to hold you through three-ish years, you will become homeless or dead. My friend killed herself. Paid into social security for four decades, needed it to pay out just a few years early, and ended their life without collecting a dime. A few months after her brother died without ever having collected a dime. I am now of the opinion that if there's a way to opt out of it you absolutely should.

by Anonymous 5 months ago

Social Securty is a Ponzi Scheme

by Anonymous 5 months ago

Exactly.

by Anonymous 5 months ago

It's not efficient in any way. You could just mandate that employees and employers each contribute their 6.2% to a 401(k) and everyone could have their own safety net based on their own contributions, imagine that.

by Anonymous 5 months ago

It's a safety net for others, just maybe not for you. That's why people are skeptical.

by HawkIntelligent5566 5 months ago

It's the most regressive tax we have in America. The poorest of people are paying the full tax. Unlike income tax that has deductions and income brackets, the very first dollar of you make gets the full tax.

by Anonymous 5 months ago

Social Security shouldn't be viewed as a retirement account, but as a safety net that benefits society as a whole. It is not viewed that way because that is not what it is. It is not a safety net when it harms most people who are forced to pay into it. If it keeps the disabled and the elderly from being absolutely destitute, then it's well worth it. But it is not doing that. It is helping ensure the eldery are destitute. It provides a little bit of help to the disabled, but we could provide far more help without the harm by creating an actual safety net for te disabled. ​ These number crunchers fail to understand that they are part of a society and that just because something doesn't directly benefit their narrow self interests, it doesn't mean that it's bad. What makes it bad is that it is hurting 99% of the people and barely helping the other 1%.

by Anonymous 5 months ago

It is not a safety net It 100% is, by every definition. It's helping ensure they're destitute How? By giving them money to spend? it's hurting 99% what??? I'm almost positive you don't understand what social security does

by Anonymous 5 months ago

It 100% is, by every definition. What definition? How is it a safety net for the government to take money and spend it, only to tax you more in the future to give you less back? ​ How? By giving them money to spend? Nope. By taking money and guaranteeing they have less to spend or invest. ​ I'm almost positive you don't understand what social security does And you would be wrong.

by Anonymous 5 months ago

The social safety net (SSN) consists of non-contributory assistance existing to improve lives of vulnerable families and individuals experiencing poverty and destitution. Examples of SSNs are previously-contributory social pensions, in-kind and food transfers, conditional and unconditional cash transfers, fee waivers, public works, and school feeding programs. source You asked "how's it a safety net to take money blah blah blah" and the answer is above. By taking money and guaranteeing they have less to spend and invest Again, what???? You, someone not using the safety net, is paying for it now, so people who do need it, are able to use it. Eventually, you'll be old and possibly useless and need some assistance. Then, someone who's your current age and is not using the safety net, will pay for it, so you, who does need it now after all these years, is able to benefit. You think they're holding your money for you so it's available in 50 years? lmao back to OPs point, it's not a retirement account

by Anonymous 5 months ago

You assume that your current trajectory is somehow a settled matter. It is not. Social security is a net positive for society. Whether or not one should have lived a better life, and done more to ensure that they would have a more comfortable future is somewhat irrelevant. I would rather that when I was out in public, there were not people dying in front of me. It does not matter whether the person involved in an accident were driving recklessly, I still expect an ambulance at the scene, and for the whiles to be cleared from the road. Whether the person was mentally ill, or simply indulgent and making bad choices. Or whether a person was fine most of their life, and things just fell apart due to bad luck, it simply doesn't matter. Nobody "deserves" to die in the street, and I have no desire for that to be something that I am regularly exposed to.

by StatusBelt 5 months ago

I'm not interested in a safety net that barely helps anybody. I'd much rather opt out and invest it so I could actually maybe retire one day. Forced charity isn't charity. It's theft.

by Anonymous 5 months ago

Yeah it's a safety net until the Boomers bankrupt it and leave Gen X paying into a system that will collapse right about the time they need it which is what the math says is going to happen.

by Anonymous 5 months ago

How did boomers bankrupt it? Theres many more retirees pulling from it than previously were. The ratio of people paying into it is much smaller than it was 20, 30, 40 years ago.

by AdFinal 5 months ago

Exactly. If we privatized SS (which I was in favor of many years ago), the whole thing would crash. The money I'm sending to SS every 2 weeks is absolutely needed to pay the current recipients. I just hope it holds on for another 20 years! The ONLY benefit I get from it now is being able to joke with my father that I'm paying his bills now. 😂

by Sea-Funny 5 months ago