I don't think most people understand how social security works. You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States) https:

I don't think most people understand how social security works. You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States... SS is not quite a pension fund, but it is also certainly _not_ a "tax on income like any other". The funds taken all go to directly to the SSA fund, they aren't available for general use like basic income tax is. For another difference, it is payroll tax, so if you don't have income from wages (e.g., all income is through interest and dividends) there is no SS tax at all. Importantly, although it's possible that the fund could become exhausted if payments aren't reduced (as baby boomers age and the elderly grow to far outnumber the young), the size of payments would be reduced far before that point. Also, since there will always be at least some young people paying into SS, even if the fund itself was basically exhausted there would still be a continuous stream of incoming payments to distribute out to the elderly, just much reduced from the current size of outgoing payments.