Social security was signed into law by FDR in 1935 during the Great Depression.  

Yes. When you start working for an employer, you must set aside about 7.65% of your gross earnings to fund your social security and Medicare account.  Your contributions must be matched by your employer by law.  If you work for yourself, you must set aside over 15% of your gross income to cover the entire mandatory contribution.  

FICA stands for "Federal Insurance Contribution Act." It sets the contribution requirements for social security and Medicare for employees and employers.  

As long as there are enough workers paying into the system, the social security trust fund will stay afloat.  But demographics are changing and people are living longer.  This is putting a strain on the balance in the social security trust fund as contributions are waning relative to payouts.  

Congress may consider increasing the full retirement age, reducing benefits (lowering COLAs), increasing FICA tax rates, reducing disability payments, and even eliminate payouts to the rich.

Studies show that the lower your average annual income, the more you rely on social security. The poor rely almost exclusively on social security while the rich use it to pay for less than 20% of their expenses during retirement.  The average individual in America relies on social security to pay for about 33% of their retirement expenses, and the average monthly benefit is about $1,341.

Not only aren't we sure whether social security will be around 15+ years from now, but all the funds in the social security trust fund are invested in Treasury securities that are hardly keeping up with the rate of inflation - nothing is invested in stocks.  This is a huge disservice that the federal government is doing for seniors.  The feds have no business in assuming that they are capable fund managers - they should consider mandatory, privately managed Roth IRAs instead, for example. Probably because the returns on investment are so poor, benefits (COLAs) are not keeping up with the rate of inflation either.

The answer to this question is a function of your health and longevity prospects and whether you have other income sources to supplement social security during retirement. Those who can afford to do so should consider waiting until the RMD age of 70 to start receiving benefits, as this increases lifetime benefits by 13%.  As an example, someone who's paid into the system regularly and starts receiving benefits today at age 62 would qualify for monthly benefits to the tune of $1,500 - whereas as the same individual would receive $2,640 per month if they waited until age 70.  

The author recommends that individuals take matters into their own hands, by supplementing social security with a Roth IRA (qualified retirement savings plan).  The funds inside the Roth IRA should be invested in a conservative asset allocation like the WealthMaxBuilder portfolio.  This way, REAL returns will be generated (that exceed the rate of inflation), while not assuming excessive risk.  The details of how to do this will be covered in lessons 9 and 10 of this video course.