Should We Raise Social Security Taxes

[buzzards27]

of course, the uber wealthy are way overtaxed already and they should get another tax cut instead, right?

it is NOT an "all or nothing" answer, we can tax the income that is undertaxed and not taxed at all. we can make those that benefit from this country pay their fair share.

We did survive when the top tax rates was in the 80%'s and 90%'s, didn't we?

Originally Posted by hilgi

As I have pointed out on several threads, there is only so much available income to tax. Sure we may get enough to fund SS but at what cost? Medicare is such an unknown, State and local municipalities are taking trillions now, most of our Federal budget is on auto increases.

We are quickly getting to a point where tax and interest on our dent will take all of our income, that is not sustainable.

not sure what that means???

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by oldtimer2

Do we need to raise Social Security Taxes?

How much if any?

Who should pay the increase if any?

Yes, we should raise Social Security taxes, but that should involve only removing the cap on current wages, which I believe is around $96,000 (in other words if you earn $150,000 you only pay Social Security/Medicare tax up to $96,000).

I would like to see the cap raised to $150,000, and then a sliding scale up to $1 Million.

However, if that is done, I would like to see Social Security disbanded. I think a better solution would be for the government to have employers take the tax from your wages and deposit them in an account, which you control, but cannot use for any purpose, other than retirement.

So you can let the money sit and collect (non-taxable interest), or buy CDs and roll them over, or invest in a money market or 401(k) or purchase stocks as you see fit.

It's a liability, meaning that you can never use it as an asset for collateral to purchase a home, a car, a luxury yacht or for any other loan. When you reach retirement age, and you decide if you should retire at 52, 55, 60, 62 or 75, then you can withdraw money from the account.

You'd have to make some changes to federal banking regulations, for example, banks couldn't use those monies for mortgage securities. That would help prevent the possibility of banks collapsing and the government having to come to the rescue.

That has several positive effects, first, it forces the government into some fiscal accountability, because the government can no longer spend any of the surplus taxes collected (not that I foresee that Social Security will ever have a surplus in any year in the coming future), and it forces Americans to save, which would increase at least some confidence in treasury notes.