Social Security offers a strong foundation of retirement protection for plenty of people in the United States

The majority of workers who participate in Social Security by paying their tax contributions receive their benefits later in life. Social Security’s near universality comes with a ton of important advantages.

First, it offers a strong foundation of retirement protection for people, no matter their earning levels. It also rewards personal savings and private pensions, mostly because it’s not means-tested and doesn’t reduce or deny any benefits to people with higher incomes and more assets.

Social Security also comes with a higher annual payout than any private retirement annuities per dollar that might get contributed, mostly because its risk pool isn’t completely limited to those who expect to live too long and no funds risk leaking out in lump-sum payments as its administrative costs are much lower.