Most of what people think they "know" about Social Security is wrong and/or the product of deliberate misinformation spread through the media. The problem with SS is not a large increase in life expectancy (life expectancy for retirees has not increased that much, in fact it has decreased for some groups such as those without college degress), nor is it the result of high-wealth retirees drawing benefits (so that means-testing will not do much to solve the problem) since the vast bulk of benefits rececipients depend entirely or almost entirely on SS to live.
You can read more about the "Life Expentancy Zombie" from Krugman:
The Life Expectancy Zombie - NYTimes.com
Instead about half of the loss of contributions now and in the future is due to the growing inequality in America coupled with the regressive nature of the payroll tax. Over the last 30 years most of the gains of productivity in the US economy have gone to the upper few percentiles. This is not an accident, nor is it some inevitable law of economics. But it has happened. Since income subject to FICA excludes the sources of income that are available to the rich (capital gains, dividends) and excludes all of their labor income above the cap, this means that much of the increase in income that has taken place has escaped the payroll tax. This, not a change in life expectancy, is the feature that the founders of SS in the thirties did not forsee, the polarization of wealth and income in the US. Indeed today the US has the most inequality among the highly developed nations, comparable to Thailand, as it happens.
The sequestering of income gains by the rich due to increases in productivity of the economy as a whole is indeed a threat to SS and to much else in American life. The US now has less upward mobility, supposed its big advantage, than the European Community. The 1% and the other top percentiles do not want to pay for benefits from the govt such as health care, retirement benefits, medical insurance, or education since they can buy these services easily on the market. And they have been remarkably successful in reducing their taxes over since Reagan got into office. If productivity does not increase in the future then the living standards of all Americans, including workers and retirees, will not improve.
I know that for some of the posters here understanding the role of productivity in the economy andstandard of living is apparently above their paygrade. Unfortunately, it is simply not possible to understand living standards without understanding the role of increasing productivity, and that includes SS recipients along with everyone else.
“For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.”
― H.L. Mencken