Social Security is not a retirement fund—it's a transfer program, taking income from the payrolls of current workers and giving it to retirees. Generally, these retirees are already wealthier than the workers subsidizing them. Social Security's retirement payments (Old-Age and Survivors Insurance) should be phased out because of the program's unsustainable and regressive nature, freeing workers to better use their earnings to plan for their own retirement.
This should be easy to grasp: Retirees have had a lifetime to work, pay off their mortgages as their homes appreciate in value, and let their retirement accounts grow. Meanwhile, young workers are starting at the bottom of the labor market, have much less in savings to draw on in case of emergency, and often struggle to make rental payments or find an affordable home to buy. The median household wealth of those under 35 years old is $30,500, compared to $341,400 for the 65- to-69-year-old age group, according to the latest Census Bureau data from 2021.
