[RFEngineer]

“If I live a long time, I may actually have more paid out than was originally paid in because I was fortunate to live and the today’s pay outs are inflated.”

You are making an actuarial argument, fair enough, it’s not unreasonable.

Even with that - SS and Medicare pays out far far more than you will ever have contributed, regardless of how long you or anyone else (or population) lives.

[kabar]

This graph shows that the average man and woman (average defined in the study as average income over their working lives and living to the average life expectancy) who start receiving benefits in 2010 get over 3 times more in benefits than they pay in to the system! Of importance, the study accounts for inflation by calculating all past taxes and future payments in 2010 dollars to provide an accurate comparison.

If the notion that Medicare recipients are simply "getting back what they paid in" is false then where is the money coming from? Simply, the excess received is being borrowed from younger generations and the cost is more than we can bear.