npaden
Well-known member
I've popped into this thread a couple times and seen it run the gambit of expected straw man angles so I'm not sure if the points I'm about to make have been covered or not. I'm not going to go back and read through 21 pages of circular logic discussions to see.
The biggest issue with social security is the same problem most corporate defined benefit plans had. The baby boomers retiring. The other big problem is that people are living much longer than when social security was started. More people retiring than there were paying into the trusts.
I saw an infographic a while back that showed something like 8 people paying for every person being paid out in the 1980's and that has dropped to something like 2.2 people paying in for every person being paid out now. (Of course I can't find that data so take it with a grain of salt, but based on the 2 points noted above it seems plausible).
The answer to fixing social security is very complicated and I think it will take many different pieces to make it work. Higher tax, reduced benefits, etc. are all going to have to come into play.
On the straw man argument about raising the tax on the rich to cover it I saw this article this morning and thought it was pretty interesting.
That's right, the top 1% paid almost half of the total taxes paid! Pretty amazing. Shockingly, unlike the anecdotal things you hear, or the 1 in 1,000 exceptions, across the board as people make more money, they pay a higher % of their income in taxes. The top 1% paid the highest percentage of their income in taxes.
We do live in a democracy though and it's always easy to just say to tax the people who make more than us to pay for things.
Oh well, I'm pretty discouraged on the whole thing. Partisan politics do not appear to be very good at actually solving problems that need to be fixed. That takes compromise and a willingness to work together to accomplish something.
The biggest issue with social security is the same problem most corporate defined benefit plans had. The baby boomers retiring. The other big problem is that people are living much longer than when social security was started. More people retiring than there were paying into the trusts.
I saw an infographic a while back that showed something like 8 people paying for every person being paid out in the 1980's and that has dropped to something like 2.2 people paying in for every person being paid out now. (Of course I can't find that data so take it with a grain of salt, but based on the 2 points noted above it seems plausible).
The answer to fixing social security is very complicated and I think it will take many different pieces to make it work. Higher tax, reduced benefits, etc. are all going to have to come into play.
On the straw man argument about raising the tax on the rich to cover it I saw this article this morning and thought it was pretty interesting.
The U.S. Already Soaks the Rich
The U.S. Already Soaks the Rich
In 2021 the richest 1% paid 45.8% of income taxes, up from 33.2% in 2001.
That's right, the top 1% paid almost half of the total taxes paid! Pretty amazing. Shockingly, unlike the anecdotal things you hear, or the 1 in 1,000 exceptions, across the board as people make more money, they pay a higher % of their income in taxes. The top 1% paid the highest percentage of their income in taxes.
We do live in a democracy though and it's always easy to just say to tax the people who make more than us to pay for things.
Oh well, I'm pretty discouraged on the whole thing. Partisan politics do not appear to be very good at actually solving problems that need to be fixed. That takes compromise and a willingness to work together to accomplish something.