Basic Fact Ignored in Social Security Items

I read with interest the articles on Social Security. Regarding Edward R. Roybal’s article, it is obvious that he has been visiting with President Reagan in the Rose Garden lately.

The truth is that the Social Security system is a miserable failure.

At the present time, the system extracts from all working Americans about 14.2% of their gross income up to about $32,000 per year, and it is scheduled to go to 15.2% in the next four years, on income up to about $55,000.

Total extractions from gross income by federal, state, county and city governments, including both direct and indirect taxes on all sorts of things, amounts to about 60% of gross, leaving 40% as spendable income over which we have some say about how it is spent.

Therefore, 40% plus 14.2% is 54.2%. Then 14.2% is 26% of the 54%.

So we each pay roughly for 40 years about 26% of our spendable income in order to get back enough to pay for 40% of a rather meager living expense for the last 10 years of life, in the form of Social Security payments.

I call this a bad investment.

R. W. LILLIE

Granada Hills