Quote:
Originally Posted by MandoMan
Fixing Social Security is pretty easy. Raise the employee contribution by 1% and raise the employer contribution by 1%. If that had been done ten years ago, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But no Congress wants to be seen to raise taxes.
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That won't do any good at all, when the max income affected by the deduction is still less than $168,600/year. Starting next year that'll be $176,100/year.
If you earn paychecks (since this is exclusively a payroll deduction) totaling $500,000 in a year, they'll only take 6.2% out of your paycheck up to the first $168,600. Your employer has to pay the same amount. Another 1.45% comes out for Medicare. NOTHING will come out for SS or Medicare for the other $331,400 that you earned that year.
Granted, most people who earn that kind of money aren't getting it via paychecks. But some are. People earning $168,600 have deductions on 100% of those paychecks. Wealthy people do not. I think they should.
I also think "early retirement" could be eliminated. Right now, the basic eligibility is 65, with 67 being the expected, and 62 considered "early" retirement. Get rid of that. Have social security benefits start at age 65 (unless you're disabled, that's another ball of wax).
If you do that, then SOME folks will be paying in for 3 years longer than they otherwise would have. And that means more money available to spread around.
So - remove the max income cap AND eliminate "early" retirement, and you'll be funding it just fine for a few more generations.