This might be a stupid question but...don't a lot of successful people that have careers get retirement plans/pensions through their work, negating the need for social security? People obviously still want to collect social security since they payed the taxes their whole life. Why then do we bother with social security in the first place? Because we don't know if we'll be successful, if we'll have a career where our retirement comes from work. This is why I say Social Security is flawed at its core and should not exist, or at least should exist in some other form or program.