When you go to your financial planner, Bob, does the conversation go like this:

"Hi, Bob - can you show me investment products that I can leverage that he me and those dudes over there [al points to some guys standing over there]?"

No, you don't.

Bob says, "what you're describing is a defined benefit pension plan. They're used all over the world." You can't buy one as an individual, but plenty of people use them to fund their retirement.

Complaining that a government-run defined benefit pension plan doesn't work like an individually-directed private investment account is fine, but that doesn't make the former "not a retirement plan."

They *do* show up in the rate of return in the form of at least 2 points of cost, don't they? How many private plans have feature adds that cost more than the rate of return of the plan itself?

It's not a feature ad. The purpose of Social Security isn't limited to making sure that you only have enough money to avoid poverty in your old age. It's not an individually-directed retirement account. It's a program intended to make sure that everyone in your life has protection against poverty in your retirement. So it consists of: i) your retirement benefit; ii) a lifetime disability insurance product; iii) a spousal benefit product; iv) a minor child disability product; and v) a surviving minor child benefit. You don't get to just disaggregate them.

So it's a mistake to look at 100% of your social security payments and treat them as if they are just funding i) on that list above. They're not. Add in the tax advantages (at least 15% of your social security income is always tax free), and you'd have a hard time duplicating that package if all of your funds were in a private investment account with 100% risk-free assets.