[Neanderthal]

"I don't think it works that way...ex: lets say a person works 30 years with an average salary of 40K @ today's 6+% SS tax, that only comes out to approx $72,000. It only takes about 6-7.5 years to collect that money thru SS."

Where did you get 6%? It more like 13%.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Each employee's SS contribution, I think, is only 6%, but the employer has to match with another 6%.

The total FICA is 7.65% from the employee, and 7.65% from the employer--6% for Social Security and 1.65% for Medicare. I think that's how it goes--I'm a bit rusty.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Oops. It's actually 6.2% for SS, and 1.45% for Medicare, if the website I just checked is accurate. But that's still 7.65% for each party, employee AND employer, for a grand total of 15.3%!