I was waiting to see if anyone was going to mention the fact that as originally 'sold' to the people, SoSec was their own money - paid back what they paid into it with interest as a guaranteed pension of sorts. Not Socialism at all.
But then.... Socialism came in by the hand of Government when Congress decided to take the revenue designated for the "SS trust fund" and reapportioned it into the general fund - essentially taking the money of the producers and redistributing it to whatever it was the government wanted to spend it on.
Call it Thievery. Grand Theft. Ponzi Scheme.
What was sold to the people was not Socialism, because it was supposed to be their own money held in trust, paid back.
But of course with every little thing the government touches - it steals and redistributes, which is of course the operative form of Socialism.
And that "trust fund" is broke. Empty.
So we now write IOU's that they dump into the same "fund" to the tune of trillions and soon the revenue stream from what is currently employed will not be enough to pay out to retirees as promised.
THAT will be fun, watching the consequences of Socialism play out.
What matters is what was enacted into law. It's very nice, I suppose, that social security was pitched to Americans as being their own money, to be returned with interest at retirement, but that is not the law that was enacted. The law as enacted is what we have, and that law makes it clear that social security taxes are nothing more than an additional income tax on wages.
People who are upset that the pitch misrepresented the reality do not have a basis for claiming that the law should be rewritten so that it embodies the pitch. Unless, of course, one is a diehard liberal for whom pesky laws can always be "interpreted" to do what the liberal wants them to do based on the supposed intent, even if that is contrary to the words actually enacted.