1: It was a mathematics example to illustrate how crappy Social Security actually serves the people. Besides, Social Security already takes 15% (7.5 directly form the individual), my example only shows what COULD have been done with just 4% (using all 15% the value is almost $5 million). As for showing the math, I have already given you all the variables and you can find the formulas on the web easily, though it is just as easy to find a calculator and skip the math by hand.
except that (a) your math is still not proven that somehow a minimum wage earner will be a millionaire by retirement simply by just siphoning $48/month (or 4% if you like) into an investment, (b) SS is a pre-tax deduction, so the employee never notices that money is missing, and (c) it's very very rare for a minimum wage earner to have $48/month of disposable income, and it's even rarer still if they dispose of that income on a retirement plan. when your choice is eat now or eat when/if you reach retirement age, i'm pretty sure eat now is the preferred option for all living creatures....
and now you are back to your condescending troll persona again, but i'll answer anyway...
through several job changes and an ex wife, i've had several 401(k)s and an IRA, all tied to various mutual funds. i used to be naive like you and think that mutual funds could survive the stock market fluctuations, because their average returns are typically positive. however, i've seen my 401(k) lose 15% over the course of a year and the IRA lose close to 40% to the point that it was worth less than the money i started it with. so tell me again how much money i would have had if i would just put my faith in the stock market?
good thing i didn't retire when my IRA lost 40% of its value, but i'm sure a good number of people did. and i'm sure they'd all love to hear your theory about how they could be millionaires by now if they only followed your investment advice 
hey, i'm sorry we can't all be born into rich families like you. some of us have to work for a living, and those of us who DO work for a living have to figure out how to survive when we no longer have a regular income. unfortunately, the richest country in the western world has a lot of people like you who think that the best thing we can do for our poor and our elderly is to throw them to the wolves rather than have a government program to help take care of them through their struggles.
your motto seems to be "fuck everyone, i got mine". well, we tried that once before, and it's the reason we have things like SS in the first place. but of course it's BAD that we should demand that there be a minimum standard of living for everyone, no matter their ability to work. let's just throw away everything that makes america great so that the select few who can afford everything just take it all and leave the rest of us to fight for whatever crumbs they deign to allow us to have.
"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman
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