I just retired

Crawdaddys said
For me, the question would be will I be around in 8 years.

The trouble with SS is that the cap on earning has not gone up enough to acct for inflation. 6.2K is the cap whether you make 176K or 400 billion.

It's a political football, but one which is responsible for keeping more elderly out of poverty than any other program ever.

If that's not worth taking some money from high earners, IDK what is. Double the cap and SS just got solvent for years and it only impacts people earning >176K. As someone who only dreams of that kind of income, I'm ok with it. They get plenty of other benefits and honestly if elderly and retired have more money, they'll spend it creating money velocity which increases tax collections.

SS is not an entitlement. It's a pay as you go program.

Also, you should do some research on America prior to implementation of SS.

https://www.aarp.org/money/retirement/seniors-before-social-security/

So how did older Americans get by? Website Gobankingrates.com compiled a list of 16 things that served as a safety net for seniors before Social Security, though “safety net” doesn’t really apply to many of the options, which include panhandling, moving into almshouses or poorhouses, or simply dying impoverished, which was the fate that befell 1 in every 2 older Americans in the years after the 1929 stock market crash.

A 2016 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities showed that Social Security benefits lifted more than 22 million Americans above the poverty line the previous year. The study estimated that without Social Security, more than 40 percent of seniors in American would be living at or below the poverty level.

Essentially, if you don't make SS solvent, prepare to take care of your parents and hope you have kids that can.