[Caymus]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

I'd love to see the cap lowered to 5%, but the max income affected raised to $250,000 per person.

Consider also a few things:
1. In some states, state employees don't pay Social Security tax but instead get a pension. they aren't entitled to collect social security payments at all.
2. Immigrants who work, and are not yet full citizens, have to pay social security tax out of their paychecks, but are not permitted to collect social security payments when they retire.
3. Full time students under the age of 23 are exempt from income tax, and only have to kick in social security tax.
4. Many of the wealthier people in this country have so many tax shelters they never pay a dime toward social security - and generally don't collect any either. But they should still pay toward the pool - that's how it's able to sustain itself. If you're earning over a million bucks every YEAR - and can't manage to kick in 5% of the first $250k then you need a new accountant.

I think there was an attempt originally to not have it be a complete welfare system.