they don’t collect their ‘lifetime contributions’ because ytheir lifetime contributions are already gone. they were spend on current recipients. there IS no relation between your contributions today and your benifits tommorrow.
tommorrow’s benificiaries will be paid from tomorrow’s workers.
this is a pay as you go program, similar to a Ponzi scheme. in fact if you tried to use Social Security as a business model, you’d be jailed for fraud.
Will be new condition of eligibility that you have to die have x years of collection.
The question is how long will it take for a person to receive as much money from the SS-system as they paid into it. Never-mind that it’s not their money they’re getting back from the SS system. That’s a sad truth and a “given”. Rather, the question is how long will it take the average retiree to receive from the Social Security welfare system the same number of dollars that they paid in SS taxes??? It’s an interesting question.
I will be working and paying SS taxes for at least another 20 years (I’m a church pastor and will be working until I’m beyond 70 years of age). At the current SS taxation rate (I’m self employed), and assuming only a cost-of-living increase in income over the next 20 years, and at the current figure for what I will draw every month after retirement, I will have to live to be about 94 years old before I have received from the system the same number of dollars as I paid into it. That assumes I’ll get anything from the system at all ... something which I doubt.
Based upon current longevity figures, plus my family’s history, I have a good chance of making it to 94 ... and then some.
Thankfully, I am fully vested in a fantastic non-profit (Church sponsored) pension program and am making contributions to the non-profit version of the 401k ... so ... I’ll not be dependent upon SS checks for my retirement income. Frankly, I don’t expect to get any SS checks. I’m sure there will be some kind of system in-place by the time I retire to help cover health care and to provide some kind of credits for cash payments to retirees based upon the current SS system, but I don’t expect to be getting from the SS welfare system the number of dollars I paid into it. Not even close.