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isn’t an entitlement something you never paid into?

No, an entitlement is a benefit provided by law. It has no connection to whether you "paid into it".

And once again, I hate bursting this bubble, but here goes:

Social Security has no contractual obligation to you. Congress can change the law to reduce, increase, or even cut off your benefits completely, and the only recourse you have is to vote against them.

This is settled law: back in the 50's, Congress eliminated benefits for a small class of people. A guy that was already collecting benefits found himself cut off. He sued, it went to the Supreme Court, he lost. You can look up the case: Flemming v. Nestor.

i figured the lump sum amount my mother would have if she invested the money she put into SS.

The ratio of the value of SS benefits vs. the value of SS contributions varies based on several factors:

The starting age of contributions. The tax rate has increased quite a bit from the first year.
The age the recipient passes away (obviously).
If there is a non-working spouse (that increases benefits 50%).
The average monthly indexed earnings, over the contributor's career. If it's below the median income (about $50,000 in 2014), they tend to do pretty well. But, if it's above the median income, they tend to get a crappy deal.

I've gone through the calculations myself, using real numbers (not hypothetical): presuming that I would have bought long-term US Treasury Bonds each year, at the prevailing dividend rate. Then, I would hold them to maturity, and reinvest the dividends each year.

This approximates the return in the Social Security Trust Fund, which is invested in a special type of Treasury Bond, paying the market dividend rate.

My average indexed monthly earnings is above the median, and I calculated that I'd have about $1 million now, and $1.5 million by the time I start taking Social Security benefits.

thanks for clearing up entitlement. boy, that’s horrifying news for me. and many others who dont know,

i’m gonna go taste the cat’s food just in case.

i hate this government

and SS doesn’t go into default in 2033 or whatever. That would mean that there’s roughly 16 or more trillion in a fund somewhere NOW, held for only SS payments.

at least that one i know :)