Being in my 20’s, I consider all the payroll taxes I pay in lost.
I turn 51 in a few weeks and I feel the same about the payroll taxes. That’s money I’ll never see again.
And you probably feel that you can do with out SS if need be, but your little nest egg that you have built over the many decades will be TAKEN from you by the gov’t to pay SS benifits.
Actually, I doubt the politicans have the guts to try and do that. Any politicians who vote to confiscate IRAs and 401K accounts will very likely find themselves hanging by their necks from lamp posts the next time they leave DC. Do you think that millions of people are just going to sit back and let them steal our retirement savings that brazenly? I strongly doubt it. There will be some immediate vacancies in Congress if they try it and I suspect Congress knows it.
Instead, what I see happening is that SS will be means tested. They may say that those of us who saved for our own retirement don’t need SS and deny payments. However, that itself may be too obvious. Instead, what they’ll likely do is to repeat what Congress and Clinton did in 1993 – increase the taxes on retirees who have an income above a certain minimal level. That way, they can say that we’re still getting our SS checks only they’ll immediately be taxed away from us as higher income taxes.
