I do think it would be pretty damn helpful for Jared to take a more leftish stance – down the lines of massive increases in high income tax rates, etc.

Jim

Additional revenue does not have to be new/increased taxes. It could be borrowing. For years, the SS Trust Fund has loaned money to the General Fund. There is no reason the loan could not go in the other direction in the future, particularly to get us over a short-term hump due to retired baby boomers.

On Chained CPI, I think it is important to recognize that there are two problems with COLAs for Social Security, and only one is addressed by Chained CPI. The other is that senior see higher inflation due to more dependence on health care costs that are exploding. Any fix to switch to Chained CPI is unfair unless the other problem is also fixed, but that largely erases the budgetary benefit to making the change.

This dream is disappearing fast. Being middle class in this country means you subsidize the poor and the rich and by increasingly taxing labor and job benefits you reduce the incentive to work. The people who pay the most are simultaneously being excluded from the benefits.

I looked at my situation (below) and the math surprised me.
I currently work 60-70 hrs a week as a surgeon
I invested $200,000 8 years as a student and 5 yrs of 80-100 hr weeks on less than minimum wage.

I pay half my annual income in taxes because I am employed and get a W2. I have no problem paying taxes that help the poor, and provide health care and social security for everyone, and a basic level of quality education including public universities.
but the bulk of my taxes go to fund wars which basically subsidize the interest of certain industries (such as gas, defense) and directly subsidize others (student loans for profit universities, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, ethanol).

When I get older, the pension I am working hard for now will be taxed and the reduced return for me from social security will be taxed further– likely eliminated altogether. I have to save extra for retirement since I can’t get social security and also for college because my kids won’t be eligible for aid and subsidized loans have inflated the costs.

The top people in corporations, and the ownership class, pay much less of their income in taxes. That is also true of people who have cash based business and declare no income.

If my tax rate increases, (including as jared suggests, taxing the health benefits I get for working) because our government can’t prioritize their spending to my values, other options make more dollar-sense for someone like me.

1) I will simply cut back on my workload; working at 75% will get me essentially the same take home by dropping my tax burden & reducing child care costs
2) Take my skill set to a place like Europe or Canada where they retain middle class values . Make less money but then you don’t need it — work less, less malpractice & job stress, child care costs are much less, and I won’t have to save for college.
3) Work in a place like India or Brazil — capitalist heaven! — what you make, you keep! childcare and college are cheap, salary goes a lot farther so you can actually save for retirement rather than have the government take away as much of what you work for as possible.

The middle class need to start doing the math. As taxes go up on income and job benefits, if you have a marketable skill set, work less or consider a move to countries that embody what used to be american values.

It seems unlikely that we will be able to increase the cap in the near future. But I’m curious to know why the suggestion is to “gradually” increase it rather than doing what is needed all at once.

Also, another suggestion that isn’t on your list is one of Dean Baker’s. He says (suggests) that applying the “payroll” tax to all income rather than just salaries would solve the SS completely. What is your opinion of this idea?

I didn’t read it as support, I read it more as Jared including all of the popular suggested “fixes” in the name of intellectual honesty. I personally find it distasteful to ask old folks to eat catfood so some rich guy can throw a couple extra bags of money onto his pile. It’s a shame the rich and much of the middle class no longer acknowledge the benefits conferred upon them by society. Our society has been in decline since the reign of Reagan, and will continue to decline until we slay the ideas championed at the beginning of this era (welfare queens, trickle down economics, the laffer curve, etc.)

See 7a on pg 7 re 90% of payroll should be taxable.