the social security report doesn't detail amount paid for each year... (it details only how much you earned and were taxed on each year). There is a total amount that I paid and a total amount paid by employers.
I made more in the last two years on one real estate transaction that the total amount of social security paid by myself and employers (since 1970). Even if you doubled the total amount, my investments in real estate over the last few years has beaten that by a mile as well. The stock market is not a panacea for everyone. In fact I know many more people that have done poorly in the market than the other way around. How many funds or financial planners actually beat the average? How many do worse? And those are "professionals"!
And further... what about a person who makes a good faith effort on your plan investing in the market, but chooses an Enron??? Are they then just out of luck? No retirment? nada? Eat cat food?
I'd be happier personally if they'd just give me my social security as a lump sum right now. But I don't believe the average american is currently knowledgeable enough to wisely invest their own retirement funds. Obviously it's these same folks that haven't planned or saved up to this point already...
The whole point of social security is to provide for those who end up in old age without means to adequately support themselves... for whatever reason. Even if it's because they simply planned poorly, I don't think they should lose their home and starve on the streets at the age of 65.
Sara 
"I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell." - Harry Truman
AI
