This approach means SS would be even MORE of a "welfare" plan than it already is. It was supposed to be a kind of "forced" retirement plan - not welfare.
SS was originally designed to insure that most people would never become totally destitute. It was not designed to provide even a "good" retirement. Just one where a person who had w*rked a life time would not be out on the street eating from garbage cans. It really was considered subsistence at the time.
Today's SS is "livable" for most people - espcially a couple - who already own a home and know how to live frugally. It was originally "assumed" that people would also save something for their old age.
My mom and dad never got more than $1500/month total (ca 2000) and they lived okay on SS with their savings of around $200K. Their financial issues only began when they needed nursing home care.
Yes, SS was not really meant to be a "retirement", but for better or worse, it is all many people have these days. My grandmother in the 1960's lived in a small town on social security of under $1200/year (yes per year), but she didn't have a car, lived in what was basically a tiny house with a basement, for heat she had a gas stove unit in the middle of the house and nothing else. Her only luxury was that she had a phone, party line, of course. She came from the era where your electric bill was called your "light bill", because the only electricity she used was for lights, and a fan in summer, plus a very "fancy" as she put it, transistor radio. No furnace, no A/C, no TV, her washing machine ran on a gasoline motor that had a kickstarter, no dryer of course, and no one had ever seen a dishwasher that wasn't human. My sister used to have my grandmother's iron that she heated on the stove. It was literally a hunk of iron. That is the level of living that SS was originally designed to support.
A couple who BOTH worked for 35 years, had high paying jobs, and own a home free and clear, are fine with the SS they get. But a third of SS recipients are single. The average SS for a single is about $1900/mo, for a married couple it is about $2700/mo.
79% of people over 65 "own" a home, but "ownership" doesn't mean "paid off". 25% of "homeowners" over 65 have a mortgage. So ~46% of SS recipients either rent or have house payments. Some live with family or whatever, I suppose.
With inflation, $1500 in 2000 is $2745 today. Your parents were right at "average" for a couple. But given that housing, utilities, insurance, and health care prices have outstripped inflation since 2000, they would be faring worse today.