It was possible with pensions because they often weren't privately held accounts, and people didn't have individual balances they could consult.
Frankly, I (34) do think it'll be solvent by my retirement. It'll still have funds to pay about 3/4 of current benefits without changes to the system. As it gets closer, political change will likely get easier as Congress doesn't want lose their cushy jobs en masse.
What's going on is that the tax-cut crowd is hoping to default on those loans so their taxes don't have to be raised to pay it back. Part of their political strategy is convincing young people that the fund will disappear for unexplained reasons, or that it's not really a fund. It's part of a long-term, multi-generational plan to transfer tax burden from the wealthy to the <$100k crowd that started with Mr. "lower taxes" Ronald Reagan increasing the SS tax.
How did "we're showing up to physically seize all of your gold" play out ?
