A single man who earned an average income and reaches average life expectancy will pay $405,000 into Social Security and Medicare and receive $573,000 in benefits.
Can’t beat that 1/2% interest rate.
Makes me angry every time I do ...
“ Imagine if all your SS payroll taxes had been invested in an index fund. ”
Revolution would happen if people understood that .
Nothing is stopping people from investing in index funds.
My share of FICA is about 7.65% of my income (employer pays the other 7.65%). I've been putting at least 12% of my income (when you include company match) into my 401k for decades.
So now I have two income streams when I retire. My Social Security and withdrawals from my retirement savings. People need to realize that Social Security alone will not be enough.
“Imagine if all your SS payroll taxes had been invested in an index fund.”
The operative words are “YOUR SS payroll taxes”.
They aren’t “YOURS” it’s tax collected by the government, so as soon as it left your paycheck, it ceased to be “yours”.
Don’t shoot the messenger. You should be angry about it, but you also need to understand what the premise of your question is fundamentally incorrect.
You are essentially asking “What if I didn’t have to pay taxes?” which would be an unquestionable benefit to every working American, but is a pointless exercise in futility.
Isn't that pretty much what GWB wanted to happen? And the Dems opposed it? (Am I remembering that correctly?)