Where does this notion come from? I've been hearing it a lot lately. Let's see -- 60 months at $1200 a month is = $72000. That's about 10 years contributions, at best. This is a Big Lie.
Because Social Security started as a 1% tax and has been raised ever since to pay for more and more benefits to buy the votes of seniors. The below numbers are very conservative - as they take in the employers contribution. Divide by 2 for just your own contribution. I can also post much bleaker estimates.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/SocialSecurity.html
"Those who retired in the early years of Social Security got huge wealth transfers because they paid taxes for only part of their work lives and because, as the system was being expanded and taxes were being raised, they paid these higher taxes for only a few years. According to a study by the Congressional Research Service, a worker with average earnings who retired at age 65 in 1940 got back the retirement portion of his and his employer's taxes, plus interest, in a mere two or three months. For workers who retired in 1960, the payback period was 1.1 years. For those retiring in 1980, the payback period had increased to 2.8 years.
The picture is much bleaker for future retirees. The expected payback period for today's older workers, those retiring in 2000, is 12.9 years, rising to 18.3 years for workers retiring in 2030. "