A fundamental problem is demographics.
Back in the days when couples typically had at least two children, when a working person would work from age 16 or 18 until 65 and then probably die by the time they were 70-75, the economics of 40+ years of work funding 10 years of retirement worked. When each generation was bigger than the one before it there was a plentiful supply of new workers, so the approach of using the taxes paid by today's workers to fund today's retired people worked.
Now much work has been outsourced or automated, people have fewer children, and live longer. So the person who starts work at 25 and wants to retire at 60 while life expectancy is more like 85 is trying to find 25 years of retirement with 35 years of work. That requires far more personal saving, which isn't happening because of student debt and the rising price of everything relative to incomes. Throw in the growing number of people who are, for whatever reason, economically less productive or unproductive and the old approach of using today's taxes to find today's social security breaks.
But there's no need to worry. While you and I face uncertainty in our retirement we can sleep well at night knowing the politicians who created the mess won't go without, as they enjoy their guaranteed pensions.
