“While the truth is that they squandered the SS Trust Fund long ago,”
They haven’t squandered it. SS has always been a pass through program, with current SS taxes matched to current SS payouts. At one time SS taxes had to be adjusted yearly but IIRC during LBJ they began purchasing Treasury bonds with any excess money taken in.
Your analogy of how a bank works is a good illustration of how the SS system was designed to operate.
That is most certainly not how a bank works.
“They haven’t squandered it [i.e. the phantom “trust fund”]. SS has always been a pass through program, with current SS taxes matched to current SS payouts.”
What, then, does that have to do with a “trust fund”? There isn’t one, the way you describe it. There are taxes, and then there’re payouts. In reality there is all government revenue and all government spending, but let’s pretend SS taxes are special for argument’s sake. By the time you receive benefits whatever you paid is gone, and your SS income is dependent on taxing whoever happens to be working then.
So why didn’t you tell the other poster that, instead of saying “they haven’t squandered it”? What is the “it” they haven’t squandered? “It” doesn’t exist!