I have, and SS is most certainly a welfare program which was the crown jewel of FDRs Freedom from Want welfare state. For starters the original payout age was 65, which at the time was also the average life expectancy!
This excerpt from Is Social Security Welfare? is a good overview :
Social Security is an intergenerational, income-transfer, wealth-redistribution welfare program. The federal government takes taxes from the youth and adult working population and spends the money on the boondoggles that 90 percent of the federal budget consists of. Then, as those populations reach retirement age, it takes new taxes from the current group of working youths and adults and gives it to the former group and calls it Social Security benefits
P.S. This also explains why the Federal Government is so hell-bent on immigration, since a Ponzi scheme such as SS requires an ever expanding number of participants to continue.
“””””I have, and SS is most certainly a welfare program “””
You are probably young and do not understand a few things about life yet.