Medicare is a tax. Social security was billed as a retirement funded from payroll tax and accrued to your social security number. You should get a return of the present value of principal taken from your paycheck over the years as a bare minimum.
When I want a retirement plan that costs me 12% of my compensation for almost 0 return, I choose Social Security. :)
Oh, it “was billed as,” was it? Governments never lie, and their word is their bond. Also, love conquers all and gumdrops talk out of the sky. Critics of the program knew the score from the get-go, and if you weren’t incurably naive it became utterly apparent after a generation at least. But that doesn’t matter. Buzzphrases thrown around by politicians don’t constitute criminal fraud, and lofty promises used to buy votes aren’t legally enforceable contracts.
It’s because of pellet like you that we have this giant “entitlement” problem. Because even though you’ve perked behind the curtain, know it’s a ponzi scheme, and presumably are morally opposed to pure wealth redistribution, you STILL claim your goodies as if by right. Gimme, gimme, gimme.