Re-read my sentence. Recipients have always received more benefits than paid in. Recipients, not Social Security as a whole.
I re-read it and it still is ambiguous as to whether you are talking about the SS system as a whole or the individual. In the preceding sentence, you are talking about the system as a whole.
Recipients have always received more benefits than paid in. Recipients, not Social Security as a whole.
Always? You can pay into SS for 50 years and die a month after you start receiving benefits. Yes, most people do receive more in benefits than they contributed even counting the employer's contribution. But it is not always the case, which is why SS is insurance not a real pension plan nor is it part of your estate.
The individual contributions don't belong to you--they become the property of the government, which can revise and change the benefits according to SCOUTS (Nestor vs Flemming)