[adwn]

> I honestly don't see the purpose of that type of system either. Why create this pipeline of money anyway? Why not just take the contributions that everyone makes and put them into individual retirement accounts?

Because after WWII, there were no retirement accounts in Germany (simplified and not completely correct, but you get the point). Should they have let old people starve?

[Unklejoe]

Makes sense. And no, but a temporary program could have been put in place I guess.

It seems you're now stuck with a program that was designed to address a problem of 70 years ago.

I'm especially curious about the history of Social Security in the USA. I can read about this on my own time, though.

It does seem like it was a tool used for polotical gain.