Essentially this already happens in almost every situation where you die young:
You stay single and work until age 35, then die in an accident. If you made on average $50,000 for 10 years, you and your employer paid in about $75,000 and nobody gets it.
Good point! The SS fund must have earned billions from workers who never filed for benefits.
The reason it is broke is because the government plundered its assets and now our young workers will be SOLd out!!
If you die old, after working your whole life and saving a little something, the government takes it via the estate tax. That goes to them on top of the income taxes you paid every year. In essence, it is the same for the feds as a life insurance policy--you make money, instead of giving it to an insurance company with the feds as beneficiary, you save it for yourself and your family, and the feds take a piece when you die.
They don't need a policy on your life, they already benefit from it.