Ditto here. Most of my time in the working population has been spent as an employee of state government, which means that I *don't* pay into social security. I do have enough quarters of work to qualify for SS, but I'm not counting on even the pittance that I'd get. It's reassuring to me that (provided the folks managing our state pension funds don't do anything too stupid!) I have documentation of what is in that account and that I'll eventually get money out of it.

Looking at it like that, perhaps some sort of "privatization" of SS or at least buying something with more potential income than Treasury bonds, is that way to go, eventually. Not that I have any great hope for what the folks who'd be in charge would do with that freedom, but it seems that "might not provide enough money" is better than "definitely will run out of money soon."

YMMV, of course.