I said it's not optional. It does infringe upon your freedom, I suppose, if you somehow think you are not a member of a society with some responsibilities toward the community, though living in it and benefiting from it.

My only point was in response to your statement that SS was created in order to somehow centralize power in the government and deprive people of freedom.

It was created as a response to the stock market and banks failing.

Now, there are indirect benefits. If you die now, your wife and kids would have a small income from it. That's not figured into your calculation. And if your neighbor dies, his widow and kids, too, would have an income. I know compassionate conservatism and Libertarianism doesn't give a darned about them, but they would have to be supported somehow. They may as well contribute a bit toward it themselves.

And it's not the best deal. While people talk about it failing, etc., it is the most secure deal.

If people have some freedoms in a capitalist economy, they can go make more money and forget about SS - chalk it up as a cost of doing business, part of the overhead of the system which provides so much opportunity. Someone has to pay for that system, and the winners are grateful and take advantage of it.

And, as I understand it from folks who were there, SS was not invented to deprive people of freedom.