What people “put in” is less than what they “get out”. Exact numbers escape me, but you should periodically be getting a letter from the gov’t explaining how much YOU “put in” and how much you would “get out”, and the latter is greater than the former.
There is, however, a catch:
You don’t get out - later - what you put in. You get out what others are putting in NOW. It takes 4-5 people paying into Social Security to support 1 person getting money out of it. Problem is, the number of people capable/available of putting money in is diminishing relative to the number of people getting money out. At some point in the not too distant future, there simply will not be enough money going in to cover the money going out - and that’s when the system will collapse, and those “contributing” won’t get anything back. Sure, the FICA tax could be increased, but between that and other federal spending, you just can’t tax people at/beyond 100%.
Remember:
There is no Social Security “trust fund”, “lock box”, “investment”, or whatever. Money goes in, and goes right back out.
An important point. A 100% tax rate is slavery in every respect. If that be true, what is a 25% tax rate? 10%? 50%?