The structure of the Social Security system unfairly burdens minorities, especially African-Americans. Workers pay Social Security taxes over the entire course of their working life, but they are only allowed to collect full retirement benefits at age 67. That means a worker who dies before reaching 67 collects no benefits and loses all their money, a worker who dies at 68 only collects one year’s worth of benefits and loses the remaining 12.4% of the lifetime earnings he or she paid in Social Security taxes, and so on. African-Americans tend to have lower life expectancies than other people: 1 in 3 young black men will not live to age 65 making them the least likely to collect the full value of the hard earned money they paid into the Social Security system.⁷

Conversely, with personal accounts, workers would own their retirement savings so, no matter what their life expectancy, they can retain their hard-earned salary and pass it along to their children.