Paying into social security for forty years isn’t the same thing as the Tooth Fairy and as someone who receives SS, it infuriates me that people believe it is a government handout.
My mother worked her whole life a day died a month before she would have gotten her first check.
Perhaps you missed the point? Social Security was initially passed in the 30's as a "Social Net" promising full benefits at age 65 (when actuarial data indicated an average lifespan of 65 years). At its passage, it was only a 1 % tax on the first $3000 of earnings ($30/year).Over the years, it was expanded many times to cover all manner of "politically popular" adverse contingencies. Back in the 60's, the "Trust Funds" were converted to merely IOU's as government spent the money (to a great degree on the Vietnam War, for which they would not ask taxpayers to suffer a a tax funded burden).
Bottom-line..., there is nothing in the Social Security Trust Fund but Federal IOUs today and there are Supreme Court Decisions which deny any individual right to their contributions!
The USA (like European Socialist Nations) has promised its citizens far more than can EVER be delivered WITHOUT accelerating currency inflation and..., ever increasing reductions in purchasing power of our currency!
Politicians can either truly fix Social Security and other entitlements (whether earned or magnanimously "Granted") or continue to "Kick the can down the road" and pray that their is not a SHTF moment on their watch! Given human nature..., what do you think they will do?