In my state, state government employees do not pay into social security or Medicare. Guess what. They aren't starving. Far from it. In fact, they have retirement packages that those in the private sector can only dream of (because the portion that would go to social security / Medicare appreciates at 6-8% per year instead of 1% per year, the funds are not abused by the managers of the fund who spend them to pay for things they were never intended for, and those on the top end are not forced to subsidize those on the bottom end). From the janitors to the executives, they all retire early with fat benefits.