Your comments about change are very relevant to the end of the United States. Basic mathematics govern financial accounting. The rules for you and for the United States are basically the same with a single exception; you cannot lawfully print paper into money. The United States has been spending more money that it has received in revenue every year since WWI with only one or two years as an exception. There were no surpluses during any year during Clinton's term or Bush II's. I am sixty and there has only been one true surplus for one year under Eisenhower. The admitted estimates of the unfunded liabilities of Social Security are about 12 trillion dollars. No one can accurately even begin to guess at the unfunded liabilities of Medicare when the boomers reach retirement age. US GDP is roughly 10 trillion.
Up until sometime in 80's, beneficiaries retiring under Social Security reaped a windfall profit. Average benefits exceeded the taxes paid in plus a reasonable return on the invested capital. Up until the 70's the benefits exceeded contribution by a wide margin. Almost all beneficiaries retiring now will lose money based on their prior contributions. Anyone under the age of 50 is going to get screwed royally and the younger you are the worse the screwing. SS is nothing more than a cheap Ponzi scheme exactly like a chain letter. It was never fair. It was never equal. And it has always been Unconstitutional. Medicare is worse. Almost all the present problems being experienced by Americans related to the health care system are the direct fault of Medicare or US government policy.
Things changed but you are living in a delusion or a fantasy if you think they are for the better. And if we don't change Social Security and Medicare, the United States will be bankrupt before 2016. If we don't return to living under the Constitution, the United States will end in bankruptcy, but the world will be a better place.