Social Security: Social security is the foundation of economic security for every single American that has retired, is disabled, or even deceased. In 2012 157 million Americans paid Social Security taxes and 56 million collect monthly benefits from it. Social security taxes today's workers and that money goes to the beneficiaries, i.e retired Americans, disabled Americans, deceased Americans's families. The average Social Security benefit in January 2012 was:
$1,230 a month for retired workers;
$1,185 a month for widows or widowers over the age of 60;
$1,110 a month for disabled workers;
$1,878 a month for a disabled worker, spouse and one or more young children;
$2,487 a month for a widowed mother and two children.
The maximum Social Security benefit for a worker retiring at the 2012 full retirement age (66) is $2,366 a month.
There are some downfalls to Social Security. For instance, Income Equality, Any working American that is making less than $110,100 a year must pay the social security tax but even if that person is making just one dollar more than that they DO NOT have to play the tax. In 2008 16% of Americans did not have to pay the social security tax, and that number is going to keep increasing unless that Salary cap is changed to cover at least 90% of American's earnings.