Q: I know you have written columns in the past about the future of Social Security. As far as I can tell, there are two problems with the system as it is currently structured. The biggest problem is that people get a lot more money out of Social Security than they paid into it. The other big problem is all those people getting Social Security who never put a nickel into the funds. May I have your views on these, please?

A: You voice two common, but somewhat unfounded, concerns about Social Security. Because it's more easily explained, I'll address your second "big problem" first.

Despite urban myths about "Social Security moochers," there are no people getting monthly Social Security benefits who have not paid into the system, or who are not the spouses or children of someone who has worked and paid Social Security taxes.

I'm a good example of one of these so-called "moochers." Many years ago, I was collecting a monthly Social Security check even though I had never put a dime into the program. That's because I was a 10-year-old kid at the time. My two brothers and a sister also were receiving Social Security "survivors" benefits because our dad had just died. Although we obviously hadn't paid into Social Security, my father had spent all his adult life working and paying Social Security taxes and we were getting government checks as his dependent children.

Stay-at-home moms and other nonworking wives and widows make up the other large category of noncontributing Social Security beneficiaries. Once again, although they have not paid Social Security taxes, their husband's certainly have.

Another aspect to the urban myth about Social Security moochers has to do with a completely different government giveaway program. The Social Security Administration manages the Supplemental Security Income program for the federal government. SSI is a federal welfare program that pays monthly checks to low-income elderly folks and to disabled adults and children who are poor.

Like other welfare programs, people qualify for SSI because they need money, not necessarily because they have worked and paid taxes. So, there are folks getting SSI who have not worked and "paid for it." But SSI is NOT Social Security. SSI is funded through general tax revenues, NOT Social Security taxes.

You said Social Security's "biggest problem" is that many people receive more in benefits than they paid in Social Security taxes.

While this is true in many cases, calling this a "problem" infers a basic misunderstanding of a social insurance plan.

Social Security's planners set up the program as retirement insurance, not an investment scheme. Indeed, the original Social Security Act established a trust fund called the Old Age and Survivors Insurance Fund. Later, when the disability program was added, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund was added.

As with any insurance plan, some people reap far more in benefits than they paid in premiums. And conversely, many people pay insurance premiums for years and never make a claim against those funds.

You said there are many people "who receives a lot more out of Social Security than they paid into it." By the same token, there are many people who work all their lives paying Social Security taxes who die in their late 50s or early 60s and therefore get little or nothing out of the system. That is simply the nature of social insurance system.

Social Security does have long-range financing problems. But those problems are tied mainly to demographics: an exploding population of retiring baby boomers. They are not tied to urban myths about Social Security "moochers."

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