gave me good advice when I first got out of school. He said, "If you don't start saving beginning with your first paycheck, you may well wind up counting on the government to take care of you. IF you do that you will get WHAT the government wants you to have WHEN the government wants you to have it." Since that was the VERY last thing I EVER wanted, I listened. Thankfully (and with good fortune in life, I am fine without SS. Many people were not as lucky. or things happened, and they DO need that money. It is as much their money as my SS is mone! STILL..in my (and many other people of my generation's case) we paid a hell of a lot of SS over the years. The total you can pay annually (SS and Medicare) is up around $20, 000. I would have LOVED to have that money to invest for the past many years...No, the government had BEST figure this out and NOT ax SS, not before they STOP fleechnig working people paycheck after paycheck for 40-50 years in the workforce!