In a way, a good chunk of Social Security’s problems can be summed up in one question: Why didn’t you have more children 40 years ago? While that might sound like a lame joke, the punch line carries wallop. Five years after Social Security was launched in 1935, there were 159 workers paying into the fund for every retiree getting a check, according to the Social Security Administration. Today the ratio is roughly 3 to 1.