Imagine if they had used it to buy gold. The US would be the largest holder of gold, the price of gold would have skyrocketed, easily $4,000 per ounce or higher by now, it would have outperformed every single investment from the time we went off the gold standard, Social Security would be solvent and BRICS would not be able to take down the US dollar because Americans would hold more gold than the rest of the world combined.
This is the problem with democracy, it makes it easy for crooks to come in and rob people blind. They had laws that SS could not be invested, why didn't they have laws that the US government couldn't borrow the money and replace it with IOUs? SS began when the dollar was on the gold standard, once we went off the gold standard why not have a law that SS would be used to purchase gold? They aren't stupid, they are thieves, that is why.