My parents, retirees at 55, didn't pay into the system, as we see it today. My dad got a full pension working a blue collar job, on top of a middle wage salary. He's living off that pension, plus social security.

I can't imagine many people being capable of retiring that way these days; jobs that offer good salaries and pensions hardly exist (mostly in the government), and it's likely social security won't be there for us. I hope I'm wrong on the latter, but it's hard to live on Social Security alone even today.