I’ve received a lot of emails recently from readers trying to calculate how much they paid in Social Security taxes over the years and then wanting to compare that to what they will get out of the system in return. More often than not, they are trying to prove that Social Security is a rotten deal. While considering my response to these folks, I thought back to a column I wrote on this topic. I guessed it was just a couple years ago, but when I checked, I wrote the column way back in 2010. I decided I’m going to reprint the column today. I think it bears repeating, so here is that column I wrote 13 years ago….