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From: muth@amdahl.UUCP (John A. Muth)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Social Security
Message-ID: <2329@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Dec-85 19:01:01 EST
Article-I.D.: amdahl.2329
Posted: Tue Dec  3 19:01:01 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Dec-85 20:46:00 EST
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Organization: Amdahl Corp, Sunnyvale CA
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It looks like the annual net.politics social security fight is on again.
As long as its happening, I'll put my $.02 in.

Several people have said SS taxes are 6.5% of income. This is only true
if you make less money than the maximum for SS (this year about $40,000).
Someone making double the maximum (~$80,000) pays no more in SS taxes
than someone making the maximum. Therefore, the tax for someone making
$80,000 is about 3.25%. If you make triple the maximum ($120,000), the
tax is 2.17%. And so on ...

When I was in school, this was called a regressive tax. (Note: this is
also true if you count the employer's part of the tax. in that case
the tax rate if 13% for $40,000 ; 6.5 for $80,000 ; 3.25% for $120,000 ;
and so on)

Now look at the benefits. They are based on your tax. Therefore, if you
made the maximum (or more) for your entire working life, you are paid
a higher benefit than someone that made minimum wage all their life.
(Presumedly, someone making the maximum or more will have greater
private wealth at retirement than someone making minimum wage).

I call this inverse welfare (ie. the less you need it, the more they
give you).

So, we have a program based on a regressive tax that pays benefits
in inverse proportion to the need. This sounds like "take from the poor
and give to the rich" to me.

Given this, one would expect the liberals of this country to be fighting
SS while the Reaganites support it wholeheartedly. But what do we have?
The liberals support it and the conservatives are against it.

Truly amazing.
-- 
John A. Muth           ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,sun,nsc}!amdahl!muth