Exactly. If I take what I paid in SS over the years, plus my employers’ contributions and figure I could have earned an average of 3% on that money for 43 years, at current benefit levels, I need to live to 127 to break even. My guess is that I’m going to leave some money on the table.
My current return on SS is 1% based on my expected lifespan. OTOH my ex-wife didn’t get half!
Which just proves that SS is nothing but a scam. Period. This is why GW Bush proposed (and was pounded for the suggestion) that the government allow real working people to KEEP part of what they had been contributing to invest themselves.
But remember - “we” have to pay for all the folks who work little or none their entire lives, yet draw different forms of SS benefits... disability, crazy checks, medicaid, etc... and now, paying illegals as well...
Makes one want to puke...