It still sounds like an indoctrinated economic class from a Keynesian's point of view. If the buying power of the money your forced to pay into the SS back then was yours to invest back then, you could obtain assets that provide possibly nontaxable income in the future. How do the rich become rich. The point is that if the average person understood how this corrupted system worked, it would make a difference on the power they are able to control, as far as, economics anyway. As you know if you start to displace a card in there house of cards the system changes. The roles reverse, instead of us having to adjust for every move they make, they have to adjust for every move we make. Now I personally say trash it all, reset the whole thing and lets try this from the beginning before we had a government to make the rules, but until that happens, use the tax incentives, and what ever else to your advantage. You don't really thing Trump pays into social security do you. If you're collecting SS now, just think of the buying power your money had 50 years ago when you started putting it in, vs the buying power that money has today.