The way to get rid of the SS monstrosity without hurting people is to start from the start. That is, no new enrollments in the system. And since SS is tied to Medicare with the FICA Tax, Medicare ends the same way.
This means instead, the money that would have gone to FICA, to be immediately squandered by the government, instead of saved as they promised, effectively doubling the Income Tax, goes to individual health and retirement savings accounts, hopefully tax free.
This also means that federal revenues lose about a quarter or so of their ill gotten gains. Which means either big time cuts to government or huge deficits.
But if you are willing to kill SS and Medicare, you probably are not in favor of huge deficits. So your task becomes what parts of the federal government to put out of business.
The whole point of Social security was for everyone working to contribute, knowing that they may or may not live long enough to collect it- the reason it paid off was because many die before being old enough to collect, and that ‘surplus’ goes into the coffer. Most people being willing to contribute for the purpose of taking car of other should they themselves not live long enough to collect- SS is a payment into a system for the elderly, not just into a system for ourselves alone- Some think this is unfair, but many are willing to do their part to take care of elderly and sick and veterans-
a Single person trying to save up enough for retirement won’t have that advantage- They will only be able to collect what they save-