“..I hate to break it to you, but Social Security NEVER claimed to be putting money aside for you...”
No need for sarcasm. Same team here. It was just my phrasing.
“..originally an inter-generation income transfer scheme, and it still is. It will always be. ...”
For sure. Ponzi scheme. And they got away with it.
Back then, it was the "progressive" thing to do.
Demographic and economic trends made it appear it would work: populations would keep growing and average wages would keep rising.
Families used to have lots of kids in the hope that at least one would survive accidents and disease, and be successful enough to take care of the parents. Now, the improvement of health care and government old-age benefits no longer made that necessary.
The fertility rate crashed. It's about 1.9 per woman, now. Replacement rate is 2.1 (to account for the remaining mortality rates).
The only thing that keeps Social Security going is immigration. But, that isn't enough, especially when the excess labor is depressing wage growth.
Social Security was always doomed to fail. The problem is that no one wants to admit that it already has. There's no "will fail" -- we are well beyond the point of no return.
It's all over except for the shouting.