How long have you been paying into Social Security and?

[Hero of Bosnia]

If you could get out of social security today without seeing a dime of it would you cut your losses?

Or if you couldn't

Would you consider to keep paying into SS until you retire, not see a dime of it, with the stipulation that you're children, grand children, ect would never have to pay into SS?

[Robert W]

i have been paying over 44 years now and as of july 2009 i am collecting 1662 a month from them!! however i am glad we didn't put it into the stock market like bush wanted us to do to earn more money??

[ThinKabootit]

On average, Americans are now living longer than they used to and typically draw FAR more out of Social Security than they ever paid in. Many Americans use the "justification" that they paid in to draw benefits even when they have no real need for the money at all. (John McCain, whose wife is worth millions, draws about $2,000 a month. Very shortly he will have pulled out more than he put in, or he may have done so already, I have not seen the most recent numbers...)

It's a Ponzi Scheme...

(Robert W....let's pretend you earned an average of $35,000 a year for the last 44 years, and paid 5% into a Growth mutual fund instead of SS...today, even after the recent 'market turbulence' you would have somewhere between $1,322,598 and $2,521,570, which would be earning you between $66,000 a year and $166,000 a year in "safe" investments like Bonds and NEVER getting any smaller...wouldn't you rather be getting a {worst case scenario} monthly check for $5,500 that would NEVER stop than what you are getting now?)