You better sit down, kids

National Review: "Social Security Makes Millennials Less Financially Responsible." And, in the long run, broker than if they just put the money in a savings account.

Social Security was intended to help Americans finance their retirements, but the data suggest that young workers would be better off doing almost anything else with that money. A report by the Urban Institute, a liberal think tank, found that workers earn a paltry rate of return on their Social Security investment. A young woman born in 1995 who starts working at 22, making $47,800 per year, will pay $466,000 into the program by the time she retires (the Urban Institute, like the Brookings Institute, assumes that the employee will pay both her share and her employer’s share). She’ll only receive $569,000 in current dollars — which means a 22.1 percent increase over 43 years. And that’s assuming that Social Security benefits don’t fall, even though funding shortages make that a real possibility.

"Real possibility?"  The Social Security Trustees themselves say the Trust Fund will be depleted in 2035, whereupon benefits will be reduced by 20-25%.