You are poor because you are still paying. but i thank you for your contribution.
Because, as it told to that it is a fund for our retirement, then the million dollar salary person would be getting an insanely huge monthly SS check. SS tax is like income tax where the money just goes where ever Congress wants. SS tax is supposed to go back to all contributors on par with what they earned over their working life. Your monthly check is supposed to be limited by what you put in.
Why not make it progressive like income tax? Don't necessarily cap benefits, but make them regressive?
I think we could eliminate the cap on contributions while keeping the cap on benefits. I doubt the upper middle class to the 1%ers are relying on SS for their retirement.
1. I agree it's probably time to raise the cap.
Social Security can NOT be made finally viable quite easily, and with all due respect, anyone who believes differently isn't well informed about the system or its status.
You could do that, but if you do, you have ended Social Security. You will have another welfare program called Social Security, and maybe that's what we'll end up having, but you will have killed SS.
And this is where you and I differ. Pols refusal to task this issue solves nothing and exasberates the problem. It is nowhere as difficult to solve as many here (you included) have mentioned. However, by doing nothing........the problems will increase.
It isn't a case of differing, Joel; I am right and you are wrong.
It isn't a case of differing, Joel; I am right and you are wrong.
No, seriously, nobody familiar with the situation thinks it can be fixed, let alone easily. The math simply doesn't work, and never has.
And while I agree with you that it should have been addressed long ago, I must point out that Democrats virtually never have proposed viable ideas, and when Republicans have done so, Democrats have accused them of shoving grandma down the stairs, etc. The last time anybody tried was Dubya, and you know what happened to him. The last substantive changes were ramrodded under Reagan, with help from Tip O'Neill, and as soon as they were passed, the Dems went on their usual attack and the GOP suffered in the next election.
Obama had a twofer. First, he completely ignored the recommendations of his own blue-ribbon commission, chaired by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles; then, he joined Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in making the Democratic Party take the position of increasing SS benefits, just the opposite of what needs to be done.
You know Chuck, I heard the same bullshit when I started working back in 1967. How old are you?
This is what stupid looks like. If you graduated from college in 1980 and started at $40K, you were making decent bling. Graduate college today with that salary and you're a putz. The private bankers funding our government create inflation to rob you of your purchasing power. In 15 years, it will be $2,500. Don't get all puffy.
If you cap the benefit, you have just destroyed Social Security. As I said earlier, maybe that's what has to happen and maybe it's what will happen, but when it does, SS is gone and a welfare program has taken its place.
Private bankers create inflation? Government LOVES inflation. It basically lets them haul in more money without formally raising taxes.
It doesn't go up every year. Most years it does. Same as the benefits. But the argument is that the formula needs to be changed.
Indeed there is. I never looked into it before because there wasn't much danger of it being relevant to me. This changes some of my thinking.
The democrats already solved the problem, it is called privatizing it. That's right, the Democrats came up with the privatizing plan. It is the only idea they ever have proposed that actually is good.
I never reached it. I think Mrs. LC did once, when we moved and she changed jobs.
