A couple more misconceptions.
I guess I am old-school or something. All my life, since a youngun', I heard how "Social Security was one leg of a three-legged stool" and was not intended to be the sole source of support during retirement. The other two legs being employer pensions (now transmogrified into employer contributions to a 401K, etc) and personal savings.
When I read through various forums, blogs, Facebook, etc, and listen to other seniors yacking away it seems that so many of them were or are counting on only one leg of that stool, Social Security.
I don't know when this expectation changed.
I realize that saving for retirement is hard and can be very difficult for some. Unfortunately, it's not really a choice that we have.
see https://www.ssa.gov/history/stool.html
Another one,
Many people probably don't realize that Social Security provides a benefit that is a greater proportion of pre-retirement earnings for lower income workers than for higher income workers.
Yes, there is the cap on payroll taxes which effectively tops out the maximum possible benefit. But the percentage of income replacement is actually greater for low income than it is for high income, by design.
This is due to how the retirement benefit is calculated using the two "bend points", certain standardized values, and your personal SS wage history. The bend points define ranges that are a bit like our income tax marginal rates, except working in the opposite direction: a higher percentage applies to Social Security's replacement of income at lower income levels, whereas for taxes as income increases the marginal tax rate increases as well.
Thus someone whose wages were very low during their entire working career may find their Social Security retirement benefit is close to their accustomed income in the past, which can greatly reduce or eliminate their need for personal savings. Whereas someone higher up the income chain will find that as they pass the first bend point, and then the second bend point, the replacement of their pre-retirement income is less and less, and the need for additional income is likely increased.
see https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/Benefits.html