Social Security is not insurance. It’s not a savings account you paid into and now can withdraw from. Social Security doesn’t work like that. The Republicans would desperately like you to believe it does because then you won’t realize that Social Security is socialism for old people. They want you to believe that you have to have worked hard to “deserve” Social Security, or that you might be able to get more money from it if you invested instead of giving your money to the government.
Social Security distributes money to people who are eligible for it. They could easily make us all eligible for it. That’s what they don’t want you to know. It’s funded by the government, not by people paying into it. It’s not going to “run out” unless the government cuts funding for it. It’s a line item in the budget. That line item could be increased easily by increasing revenue through higher taxes on the rich, or through cutting spending for the military. Social Security is a basic income, which could be made universal if there was the political will to do so.
Thus endeth the sermon.