If you live to be quite old you may actually get back the money you contributed to Social Security with a small interest.
If you correct for inflation , quite old indeed.
For the people who have not retired yet this is probably not true, the rates of COLA have been messed with so the return is generally shrinking.
I liked the Bush plan to privatize Social Security in a gradual way , not because it would have been enough , but because it would have been a start in the right direction.
Since this is not going to happen , Social Security is doomed to run out of money, if the unemployment rate stays high this decay will be accelerated.
So as more of us retire and fewer workers per retiree continues to become a more even ratio the tax that supports the Social Security will continue to become more ruinous.
When we were young the government was a small minority of the economy, we are rapidly on track to the Government being the strong majority of the economy.
We will either need to operate the government at a profit , or return the economy to private hands where a profit can be made, the other choice is a spiral into unsustainability.