The biggest enemy of Social Security is also the biggest enemy of guns.... Politicians. If those nit wits had kept their hands off of S.S., and had allowed it to be administered as it was originally intended, instead of robbing it blind, S.S. would be so fat today, they would be lowering the retirement age, not raising it.
But no. Those politicians saw all that money sitting in S.S., and they HAD to spend it. They just couldn't manage to keep their grubby little hands off of it. Now it's on the verge of insolvency, directly because of their financial ignorance and incompetence.
Social Security is based on the principal of nickels in, and dollars back. That principal has proven to work when coupled with compound interest. But you have to religiously put the nickels in, and you can never touch them again.
These idiots were shoveling it out of the back end of the S.S. fund, faster than it could be replaced into the front. And the earning power of the original investment was lost decades ago.... Instead replaced with a bunch of paper IOU's, that for the most part, were never paid back. And when they were, the interest they could have earned was long gone.... Or else never there to begin with.
It's no different than these idiots who borrow against their 401 K's to buy new cars and take vacations. They get ready to retire, but realize they can't, because they've managed to accumulate squat because they have all but destroyed the earning power of their 401 K, by robbing it blind.
You cannot multiply wealth, if you spend it before it has a chance to earn. S.S. was / is like any poorly run business with potential. It had it's chance to prosper, but never did because it was run by idiots.