You paid taxes to support people who are now dead. That money is gone. The working age population could vote to cut you off at any time. Might as well face the ugly truth - it’s a Ponzi Scheme. I have never understood the affection people have for SSA. It’s something akin to Stockholm Syndrome.
@cato potatoe Which means you grew up privleged,not poor. I remember watching my father get on his knees in the bathtub and pull some of his own teeth (I think it was 3 or them) one weekend because he couldn't afford to lose a half-day of work,or maybe a full day,to go to a dentist. He used a pair of pump pliers and a nut pick.
The day he got so old he had to quit working was the same day he and my mother had no income.
The first place I can remember living was in an abandoned camper trailer in the woods because my family couldn't afford to pay rent while he looked for a job and got his first paycheck. Even then,the house we rented after he did get a job didn't have running water . It had a hand pump that had to be primed. It didn't have a toilet either. It had an outhouse. Got cold in the winter because the only heat came from the kitchen stove,and we couldn't afford to run it unless my mother was cooking,or first thing in the morning when we all got out of our beds. We lived there for a year or two before we could afford to move into a good house with central heat and running hot water.
My older brother (he was 12 at the time) came down with Type 1 diabetes and spend time in a hospital recovering,and of course we didn't have any health insurance. I don't think many working-class families did back in the early 50's.
He finally had to quit working as a carpenter when he was in his 60's,and starting drawing SS.
There was nothing remarkable about his circumstances back then. It was common for working-class people.
I am sure there are others here with similar family histories.