“… checks were invested in the S&P 500 and not just kept by the government?”
Eh, I believe they spend it. The same pols who know mostly nothing about basic economics as evidenced by their general tendency to never have had a real job and their work on driving the national debt to 31 trillion are allowed to take from the SS funds and spend.
The same people who vote themselves raises, who entitle themselves to exorbitant pensions for serving as little time as conceivable, who don’t stoop to using Obamacare, but have superior medical benefits -
I have learned to despise our government and all who support it. They are thieves, liars and I’m sure murderers.