I was looking at my annual Social Security statement today and played around with the Social Security calculator you can download from the SSA site.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/anypia/download.html

The last few years I've been getting about $9,000/yr of royalty income on some engineering continuing education courses I authored years ago and I pay about $1,000 in FICA taxes on that income as a "self-employed worker".

If I continue to get $9,000/yr in FICA earning for the next 9 years until I'm 65, I'll pay about $9,000 in FICA and my monthly Social Security benefit will increase by $45/month.

I was wondering what a GOP-approved, for-profit insurance company would charge a 65-year-old for that same $45/month inflation-adjusted benefit? Given that private insurance companies are much more efficient due to being managed by multi-million dollar CEOs instead of a Gov't bureaucrat making less than $200,000/year, I expected a significant discount to the fortune I'm paying in FICA on my paltry royalty income.

Imagine my surprise when I learned a $45/month annuity from an insurer costs $12,000 at today's rates -- $3,000 more than I'd pay in FICA taxes for the same benefit.

My Republican friends tell me Social Security is a bad deal. Maybe it is, just not as bad as buying the same benefit from a private insurer.

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