[Army Air Corps]

That and the borrowing began when the Democrats decided that it would be a splendid idea to place SS payments into the General Fund rather than funnel them into the SS fund. A long time ago, there really was a "lockbox," but that critter was eliminated so that the Guvmint could have more discrectionary capital. After that point, SS became little more than a federally sanctioned pyramid scheme. Now, people have been conned into depending solely upon SS for their retirement. Even the FDR democrats envisoned this as a supplement to whatever retirement arrangements that people made. Now, it is just one more teat on which people can suckle.

[supercat]

That and the borrowing began when the Democrats decided that it would be a splendid idea to place SS payments into the General Fund rather than funnel them into the SS fund.

No, the borrowing started as soon as people were told that they could expect to get anything back for the money they put in. And that happened even before the lockbox was supposedly raided.

The fundamental problem with Social Security isn't that the "trust fund" is invested in government bonds, but rather that only a small portion of the money which is "invested" goes into the trust fund. The only ways Social Security manages to maintain the illusion of generating a positive rate of return are (1) by having people pretend they only put in half of what they do, thereby getting an extra guaranteed "100%" rate of return; (2) by confiscating almost all of the contributions of people who die prior to retirement; (3) by spiralling deeper into the debt cycle.

Any accountant who tried anything like that with a private retirement firm would be in prison, and for good reason.