Quote from MKTrader:
On SS, we may or may not get it back. However, we won't do nearly as well as the early generation of SS recipients, who paid a lot less into the system.
The amount of your Social Security pension is based on your most recent 35 years of contributions. "Early generations of SS recipients, who paid a lot less into the system..." received a lot less in benefits in nominal dollars, however their dollars may have gone further.
The risk for future Social Security recipients is related to the credit worthiness of the USA, and hence to deficits in the discretionary budget. All of the Trust's assets are invested in Treasury bonds. Future Social Security recipients will pay part of the cost of unfunded wars and defense department waste via uncompensated inflation. There is no free lunch.
We might have fewer wars and a much smaller defense department budget if these costs were paid directly via taxation rather then indirectly via inflation. Most don't understand the link between deficits and inflation ; thus paying for wars and a bloated defense department via inflation hides the real cost. The plutocrats who profit from these wars no doubt realize that.