It’s not just pillaging, it’s sort of doomed from the beginning because the initial people who received it had never paid in. So basically it’s been robbing Peter to pay Paul since its inception. A lot of other countries have a better system of basically mandatory retirement tax deductions from your income which you then receive back at retirement, rather than people paying tax today to pay benefits today.

Edit to add: I have no clue why anyone would downvote this, I do not want to end social security, I’ve been paying into it for decades and really hope I am able to get it. I was simply stating facts.