On paper SS is a good idea. You take out part of your income to put in a account, like a 401k(granted the feds put it into one pot) and let it make money on interest. Now this is not suppose to be a tax because your getting it back(if you dont die).

Now the hard part is not to use that money for other things hoping you can put more back in before anyone needs it.

Like I said on paper(my paper using simple math) it looks good till the feds run it.