Social Security operated "in the black", continuously I believe, from its creation until recently. Otherwise it wouldn't have a $4 trillion "Trust Fund".
That does not mean it was not doomed to fail from the beginning.
Ida Mae Fuller, the first Social Security recipient, paid roughly $24 in FICA taxes from the beginning of the program until her retirement, and then collected roughly $22000 in benefits. A 100000% return on her investment. Ponzi schemes are generally good deals for those who get in early.
There is, in fact, a "Fort Knox" filled with funds that are labeled "The Social Security Fund" all of which is only to be spent on Social Security. It's somewhere in West Virginia.
The problem is that the trust fund has long been spent and for every bond the Social Security Administration redeems in order to pay Social Security benefits in excess of FICA revenue the Treasury Department must sell another bond of equal value.
As such, the Trust Fund is an accounting fiction and should be declared Null and Void, making Social Security a pay-as-you-go program, to be phased out completely over the next 40 years.
Do you have a source for this because I honestly never heard of this. I understand why FDR created the program. During the Depression society was much different. The elderly had to pretty much fend for themselves or live with a relative. And life expectancy was considerably lower than it is today.
However, everything I have heard about all the projects under the New Deal was that the money for the various programs like FERA, PWA, CCC, TVA, CWA, ect... all came out of the General Treasury. There was not a New Deal Treasury, there has always been the National Treasury to fund these programs.
Just as Barry's failed stimulus came from the Treasury. They don't just make separate funds. It all comes from one source.
I am curious as to your statement about the SS Vault in West Virginia as I never heard that and I've studied the New Deal in great depth, far more reading than I ever wished I would have to endure.