12-10-2016, 10:29 PM
(12-10-2016, 12:40 PM)bfine32 Wrote: I'm not even sure if folks understand how SS works. It is figured from your top 30 years of income. The notion being that you paid more into the system. So any cut in the program is going to affect the richer more so than the poorer; as they have already given, now they are getting a deduction in their investment.
Well, it's social insurance....which means you pay a premium for a policy. If you end-up well off, then you wouldn't/shouldn't have a "claim". I'm not sure of the formulas, but the benefit falls off a cliff after a minimal/nominal amount (dropping quickly to something like 32%, and then 15%) - a pretty lousy savings program for someone who might be middle/upper middle class.
When the program was designed, those people may have had other nest eggs beside their house. No longer true. In that respect, benefits in the middle need to be expanded, not cut (different from age increases, which makes sense). You can only get that by increasing the cap and cutting benefits for the wealthier.
I'd maybe like to see the individual cap remain, but not on the employer side (since we don't get that money, anyway).
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