Pretzel Logic

A Closer Look at Income Tax and the Rich

"In 2007, if you made more than $95,000, you paid the same as the hedge fund manager who made $1 billion and the same person who made $30,000."

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but the person who made 30K paid roughly a third of the FICA taxes as the person who made 95K -- they did not pay the same amount.

As to SSI, it is a failed system and simply needs to be dumped. Increasing the payroll tax is not the answer. How is it "fair" to tax the rich for benefits they will never receive? If you want to be "fair" you have to increase the benefits threshold in tandem with the tax threshold... yet that isn't going to solve any of the shortfall problems. The only "fair" solution is to rid the system of the burden of payroll taxes altogether. Do you think you could save for your future retirement better with a 7.2% pay raise? How about your employer? Could they pay you better with 7.2% more money? Surely private enterprise can find a superior solution than a bloated government beauracracy can, especially with an additional 14+% of your paycheck to work with. The government screws up everything they touch.

I earned about 150K last year, and I spent the first 5 months of the year working for the government. That's insane. The government is like the mafia -- they are our "silent partner" in all business ventures... and just like the mafia, they take none of the risk yet reap all of the rewards.