But the curve that determines your payout is dramatically tilted towards low earners: That is, SS pays a much larger fraction of your highest earning years income if that income was low. As a result, low earners have to live only a few years past 65 to receive benefits greater than what they put in. High earners have to live decades.

> Everyone who gets a paycheck pays their 6% in social security, regardless of income level.

Social security tax is 12.4% on the first $113,700 of wages or self-employment income, and 0% on income from all other sources and wages and self-employment income past the first $113,700, so, no, you don't pay "6% in social security, regardless of income level".

(Note that on wages, but not self-employment income for obvious reasons, half of the 12.4% is paid as 'employer share', so that the employee never sees it, so it might appear, if you look only at wage withholding, that the rate is 6% -- or rather, 6.2% -- but that's not accurate.)