Don't just get your impressions from the TV/Internet/scare mongers. You have 40 years to plan and save for retirement if that is what you want to do. Sure, Social Security as it is now will be very different perhaps but so will life itself.

I had a hand-to-mouth job life in my 20's and 30's and my lifestyle changed and I changed and I was able to retire when I was 55 (I'm 62 now) and it is fine. My life is very similar to before I retired but I have time to work on all my own projects instead of going to work for someone else. I get up and go to bed when I please and can go on vacation/take breaks whenever I want, etc. It's all about planning.

Social Security after 30 years of working is a nice bit of extra money saved; no, not enough to live on but quite helpful when added to one's other investments and retirement savings. My husband even managed to get a little pension from one large company he worked for, they're still out there too sometimes. It's like any other life step, picking colleges/majors/careers and working on them, putting children through college, having money goals of any sort; you have to work on it.