I'm leery of privatizing SS for the reason you state: you can't force people to save the money. So in the end, even if the return is better for people who take advantage, taxpayers will still end up footing the bill for people who don't use the money efficiently. My point is that income is income, so if we're going to have a government program funded by income tax, then it should be the same for all income for all people. Who cares if the benefit is capped? Why should that cap the contribution? I don't get to pick and choose which programs I support with my taxes. Anyway, as I understand it, SS was designed as a social safety net, not a retirement savings. If it's a safety net, then we all have to pay into the system. If it's a retirement savings, we should have a choice. Right now, we have a hybrid that ends up just being unfair and expensive. I would like to see it vastly reworked (actually I would like to see our whole tax system reworked, but that's another topic, I suppose).