We should not be taxed when receiving it. We have already paid taxes on it when it taken from our paychecks. I for one do not support being taxed twice on the same income.
As for the "earnings", I have ran the numbers on my 30 years of contributing.......even if I was a moron, I would have beat the so-called governments return on my and my employer's investment.
Remember you are only taxed on half of SS income. The half that is not taxed serves as a reasonable proxy for basis. Regards. You may think you can earn a higher rate of return than what you get with SS, and you probably can if you pay the max (leaving out the 2.9% medicare tax, which goes on forever), but most think that, and most do not, because they don't know how to invest, or are scammed. It also entails taking more risk of course, from the equity market. But that is another topic.