How the Super Rich Are Killing Social Security | Robert Reich 

The rich pay almost all the federal taxes and get next to nothing in return the middle class draw more ss and medicare than they pay in taxes and the poor get subsidized housing food assistance cash assistance and free healthcare meanwhile we have a debt so big it defies belief our children will have to pay for because you won't pay enough taxes for democrat handouts why is that

You think it's ok to live off our childrens future earnings vote Democrat if you think we shouldn't vote differently

What he isn't telling you is that increasing the SS taxes on the wealthy wouldn't be paid back to them in the same way it is paid back to those of us who contribute who are not wealthy. There's a limit to how much one can get from SS. The most retirement income one can get is about $3,600 to $3,800a month at 67, no matter if you were taxed for SS at $1,000,000 a month for 40 years paying in . He just wants the wealthy taxed for benefits they pay for but wouldn't receive. In other words, if one paid into SS 480 million they still could only collect $3,600 to $3,800 a month. This guy's analysis can't ever be trusted.

@@fritzforsthoefel8031 when Trump was the President for one four year term and had a Republican controlled Congress they ran up over 8 Trillion Dollars in Debt 25 percent of the National Debt they gave out huge tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 Percenters a vote for the Republicans is a vote against American Freedom and Democracy almost the entire National has been run up since Reagan the ANTICHRIST became president with most of that deficit spending happening with a Republican in the White House and Republican Majority in Congress

@@fritzforsthoefel8031so your prepared to fund your retirement 100 percent on your own? Better recheck those online retirement calculators you’ve been using because the amounts they say you need to retire are calculating based on assumed social security and medicare benefits, too. Remove them and you need to start pumping in a ton more money into your retirement account. Guess there goes your new cars and vacations from now on! For most Americans, they already cannot fund their retirements plus send their kids to college, so your already not “costing your kids their future”; they are already going to end up on their own taking out huge student loans if they want more education beyond high school. The whole system has been designed to keep them in debt from the day they graduate from high school to the day they die. Big industry wants no part of creating an educated or motivated workforce but it is happy to bitch and blame that they cannot find intelligent employees and continue to treat employees like shit because, well they already have theirs and the people under them can just go to hell! You think Trump is the answer? Good luck with that! If you are not filthy rich, you and your kids are screwed! It really doesn’t matter who you vote for, the whole plan is already bought and paid for and deep underway. They wanted it, they like it, they don’t care what you think. The Republicans just want to drop the pretentiousness that we aren’t already living in fascism; that way, they can move forward in expanding it! Sieg Heil Trump!

They stacked the supreme court as well. I'm going to say it The republicans court justices all have billionaire friends.

Yes! They make 174,000 per year so they will be increasing taxes on themselves.

@@benjaminlehman3221 It wouldn't surprise me at all if Congressional salaries were exempt from the tax altogether, but I really don't know one way or the other.

Dear Reader: Do you fear plans by Republican fascists to cut Social Security and Disability, to put the homeless population in concentration camps, to end our right to read what we like and to protest and even vote? Are you convinced that Donald Trump bought the electoral votes he needed in 2016? Do you wish that there were something you could do about all this? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then read on. This is the letter for you. This is a chain letter. Please make 12 copies and send them to 12 different people, before it's too late. The time is now to spread the word by any and all means possible. Let's spread the word to vote blue, to vote all of the GOP fascists out of office. Let's spread the word to petition our representatives for a constitutional amendment to elect the president by popular vote so that another rich tyrant like Donald Trump doesn't buy any more electoral votes. Our freedom and democracy are at stake here. Get busy and do your civic duty now. A Concerned Citizen

Vote blue don’t make me say it Dumb Asses!!!

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I thought gains like that are nothing but a pipe dream! mind sharing details of yourmanager please?

She goes by ‘’.Sonya Lee Mitchell’ I say you look her up. To be honest, I almost didn't buy the idea of letting someone handle growing my finance, but so glad I did.

Thank you! I entered her full name into my browser, and her website came out on top. I filled her form and i hope she gets back to me soon.

Is Sonya another 0f those bit coin shills?

If they want to help you they'd abolish ss gracefully. This is a math statement. Not a political one. Math says ss is abysmal. Do the math. Take what ss has taken out of your check and mock invest it. I looked at all my past wages and did it. Assuming an average 8% return. I'd have over 2 million right now and im not remotely close to 50 yet. I'd be retired or financially independent. Ss is absolutely abysmal.

@pdxmusl1510 S.S. has worked for over 80 years just fine. Why do they want to get rid of it now? Easy. Do the math.

They help themselves and their rich friends. Nothing is more obvious than SCOTUS.

I couldn't agree more.

​@alvinsoehendrywijaya9893 Nope the rich right now are paying a lower tax rate than a person working at fast food, your libertarian views don't work in a decent society. Basically everything will crumble and if you want to choose a libertarian lifestyle you can move of the grid and live of the land because that's the only true libertarian lifestyle.

@@zedwolf1589 Nicely said, my friend.

A cap makes sense in the grand scheme of things. Whatever social security was originally designed to be (and I have my own research to do on that), currently it is essentially mandated retirement savings, so why pay more in when you're already at the maximum payout? Not a good investment by any measure. I struggled with this idea when I was thinking about how to fix social security myself, and my best solution included raising or eliminating the cap on the income taxed - seemed unfair to do that because some people would pay in and receive no benefit from the overage. I would also be in favor of investment income being subject to SS tax...or at the very least, eliminating the preferential income tax treatment of investment income. Why is the income that comes from work that someone does to build a bridge get taxed at a higher rate than the income gained by the person who bought the bond to fund that bridge? Also, "security" is in the name...meaning that no one who works for a substantial number of years is left impoverished after they can no longer work. If you retire with significant assets, say $25M (or any number you want to substitute), I would argue that you're already secure and don't need the payout. You put that money into the system during your working years just in case you need it, but you don't. Congrats, you won! I'm sure that a lot of the extremely wealthy aren't collecting anyway if their income was derived from stocks and other activities, so they didn't pay in all that much or at all, so wouldn't qualify. Again, I'm trying to look into that on my own. I will add that when I said mandated retirement savings earlier, it's also savings that we get no control over how it is invested, and to cut the benefit to 77% of what we were originally promised (or any cut, for that matter), is completely unacceptable. Raising the retirement age again is also not acceptable. But to say that because a cap on income subject to the tax is unfair is misleading, since there is also a cap on the payout.

The real problem was putting the money in the general budget.

I wish there was more In can do to alleviate your condition but I vote and urge every compassionate citizen to do the same.

🌹

@@johnlast6066 Correct, it is a supplement.

@@johnlast6066 You do know 60% of the country live week to week, how are they supposed to put money back for retirement? Wages haven't kept up with inflation over the last 45 yrs. Blue collar workers have went backwards & the white collar & the rich haved soared up.

@@TheRealAbrahamLincoln A supplement for an actual argument. Rieche is an idiot.

You are more likely to get support from a Democrat than from a Republican. Try to remember that every time you vote. Why? Because Reps believe anyone not rich is lazy and ought to pull themselves up by the bootstraps - even without boots!

They haven't taken even a cost of living increase since 2009.

@@WeekiWacheeMax Then your not paying attention.

When was the last time they took a raise

2009@@fritzforsthoefel8031

Scrapping the cap is not legal. Social security was justified to the courts by promising people would get the money they pay in social security taxes back when they retire, therefore you can’t make people pay way more money into it than they will ever get back.

@@johnmartin4641 do you have a different solution to prevent millions of elderly seniors from becoming homeless on the streets of America how about we just make the government themselves pay back the more than 3TRILLION dollars that three Republican Presidents and CONGRESS stole from the SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUNDS tax the wealthy for that give back all the massive tax cuts that benefited the Mega wealthy

Have you heard of a country called Canada? It's a small country to the north of the US. Canada limits taxes to the first 65k (CDN) of earnings in the Canada Pension Plan.

the problem is that Congress doesnt know how to use their collected taxes wisely!!!!!!!! Look at the Democrats: the love to raise taxes and spend money on all kinds of shit. Biden is ruiniing our economy RIGHT NOW! Blaming people who make money is stupid!!!!!!! They dont owe anyone anything!

Part of it is that the super-rich don't make much income. It's trivially easy to avoid most income taxes when you have unlimited credit because you own billions of dollars of wealth. Also, don't "borrow" from social security funds and replace it with promises to raise taxes in the future. However, I'm not sure what "their fair share" of the SSI payments should be. If you're removing the caps on the taxes and not removing the caps on the benefits, that hardly sounds like "your fair share." Don't act like the wealthy people are doing something wrong. Just say you want their money.

The employer pays both employee and employer share (you never see the 6.2 that you need to live on). It's one of the costs of doing business so that if a person lives long enough, they will be able to survive without affecting the rest of society. Raise the minimum wage to a living wage and let the market readjust.

​@@Rustea314Maybe your employer pays your share, but the majority of us are seeing a peice if our paycheck being deducted for social security

​@@skyisreallyhigh3333Then it is our responsibility to hold our representatives responsible for keeping social security solvent

What's even sadder is that younger people will push YOU out of the workplace as you age. No one thinks it will happen to THEM. But it will. Unless you own your own business. If you have NO income or healthcare it will be a miserable existence if you can even exist. You think you can save money for your retirement? Well, that is much harder than it seems and emergencies happen to most people.

@@nancysmith2389 Its not young people pushing you out. It's the for profit motive that's doing it

So basically..no interest...the young not falling for this..and definitely not my children.

You are either lying or not very smart here is proof if you draw 1500 a month till your eighty that's over two hundred thousand dollars and you did not pay that much in ss taxes and the average person draws out three dollars for every dollar paid in medicare taxes the difference between what you pay and what you draw out is added to our debt our children will have to pay for Democrats set up ss and medicare exactly like a Ponzi scheme

Don't forget that that includes interest.

Democrats set up ss and medicare just like a Ponzi scheme vote out handout Democrats before it's to late

That's not true if you draw 1500 a month till your eighty that's over two hundred thousand dollars a year and you did not pay that much in ss taxes and the average person draws out three dollars for every dollar paid in medicare taxes the difference between what you pay and what you receive is added to our debt our children will have to pay for pay your fair share of taxes for the social security and Medicare you will receive

Under Biden record levels of debt record levels of deficit spending record levels of illegal immegration if Trump does win he will have quite a mess to clean up democrat handouts that Democrats won't pay for are destroying us vote out handout Democrats before it's to late our childrens future depend on it

SPOT ON.... THAT'S THEIR AGENDA. BECOMING RICHER EVERYDAY !!!!!!

The only thing the rich understand is “more”.

The wealthy will never have enough they do not share

@@odettetenney409 EXACTLY!!!!! But it is out of control and the average American pays for this with ever rising inflation and lower standards of living for the working class and somehow the Capitalists think this is a sustainable way to run our economy and our government but they are wrong!!!!!

EXACTLY !!!!!

Of course. The rich need to keep the slaves in poverty and pit them against one another.

But wealthy people don't have a lot of income. They have a lot of wealth, and a lot of credit. Musk can go from $200B to zero without spending a dime.

@@Novastar.SaberCombat When SS was first started in the 1930s, the tax cap was high enough that 90% of all the earnings in the nation were subject to SS Tax.

@@darrennew8211 Elon's not gonna give you a free blue checkmark, get off his dick

plus added benies, more people who never contributed ,using $$ for more than intended

Why didn't you save more a long time ago??

We need to reverse some of the tax breaks and subsidies given to wealthy people and their corporations by Reagan, H W Bush and Trump. Wealthy people now control all 3 branches of government plus all 6 of the largest news outlets.

That's the republican agenda. Keeping you on the plantation and voiceless.

​@@jackpleb2360How do you know he could have saved more money a long time ago. He may have recently paid his mortgage off which would free up more money to save. Just consider yourself blessed if you can save at an early age because most can't

From the beginning this country was founded by the wealthy planter class and they made sure rules were in place to keep the class privileges. Consider moving to a more egalitarian society.

Keep in mind that there is no cap on the 2.9% wage tax that funds about 10-15% of Medicare. Also, married couples with over $250K of investment income pay a 3.8% tax on their investment income in excess of $250K. Only the FICA tax is capped, and I am for raising that cap by at least S100K/person/year.

Many of your peers would disagree, especially if you want your money to go to others. That was never the purpose of SS to be welfare

I believe the Social Security Administration would accept an additional payment from you.

@@genesmith4019 Just how would I make an additional payment?

@@lylecosmopolite I don't know. Contact them.

Nearly every realtor in this country is treated as a private contractor and is forced to pay up as if they were self employed. These loopholes really need to change.

@@Kilroy-was-here I didn't know that at all. Don't gig-economy workers face the same problem too? Sounds to me like the rule of law is slowly being eroded while our attention is drawn to "other" things.

@@JustMe-vk4fn Correct...sad reality

@@JustMe-vk4fnThe 6.2% still gets paid, it’s just paid by the worker, not the company.

@@tomfinn6579 But, as a "private contractor" doesn't that person have to pay not only their own 6.2% as a worker *plus* the 6.2% that their employer, (if they HAD an employer), would have to pay? :D Sure explains why employers who still *have* employees don't want to raise wages anytime soon...

They being paid of by the rich .To keep us poor.

Doesn't mean it can't or won't be done before 2033, either. Complacency and apathy from too many Americans let's their DC representatives off the hook. I hardly hear a steady chorus of commenters on YT saying "US needs to tax the F'g rich already." We have been heading towards this since Raygun changed the tax rates on the greediest rich. Where have the leftwing voters, Democratic voters been? Only since Obama have we been a united group & even started to vote like we should have since the 1980s!! But even that was irregular--if it's not a presidential year, leftwing voters still stayed home. The reichwing always votes. Not the left so much until just recently...only since we started to see our rights and democracy in danger. Again, that's been shrinking since Raygun! We have a lot of catching up to do and staying organized & involved with politics. Btw: Black Americans have to realize where their "heros" really stand on issues important to them like free higher education, universal health care, climate crisis, and Social Security & related programs. James Clyburn, for instance, is not working for any of that! Yet his popularity is at an all time high. WThell. Voting for conservative, moderate Democrats will keep up from any progress.

Reaganomics became Newt-onian selfishness which led to Trump fascism. IT won't change. WE have to CHANGE it. Vote Blue, but be careful there, too. Billionaires corrupt. Corporations corrupt absolutely...

Just blame China.

Many Democrats have tried to move forward and fix the problem but the Republicans will not allow it they would let social security go broke and end it instead of increase taxes on the wealthy and big Corporations. The bigger problem is the more than 3 TRILLION DOLLARS that was looted from SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND during three Republican administrations starting with the ANTICHRIST REAGAN just like the NATIONAL DEBT that they think they can just keep increasing AMERICA is actually bankrupt and this all happened so that the wealthiest among could become billionaires and MEGA millionaires America only has a future if we totally change our entire government and economic model and policies at all levels but just voting for the democrats is not enough we have to have a responsible change on how all of America is run at all levels

Rich gotta rich. Poor gotta serve. 😓 Masters and slaves. It is what it is.

Cap on social security cuts both ways If people with higher income pay more into social security They will also have to be paid more retirement benefits No easy solution

​@user-rl1rp3wz6m Thank you for pointing that out. What is the maximum Social Security benefit for high income earners? The maximum benefit is $3,627 for someone at full retirement age (FRA). The absolute maximum benefit that an individual can receive per month in 2023 is $4,555, and you must wait until age 70 to claim benefits and have been a high earner for 35 years to get this much.

@@user-rl1rp3wz6m sure there is all we have to do is eat the rich! LOL

@@user-rl1rp3wz6m sad thing is, I hear they are just full of shit!

Thank you for sharing your expertise with us.

All of that was nonsense rambling. The currency is just debt. Our money isn't money at all. Fix the money, boomers. You broke the world.

Yes, it’s people who make over the cap who actually understand how little it effects the people who make over the cap. That’s what I found when I was in that bracket. But people get brainwashed that it’s somehow unfair. Why do things always have to be scrupulously fair when it could inconvenience the rich, but not so much when it works in their favor?

While I agree that the cap is unfair, I don’t think it’s the primary issue with social security and the methods of funding social security. I remember reading a quote from FDR with regards to social security, in which he stated that the plan to have a separate tax for social security was 100% a political decision and had nothing to do with the financial requirements. The State can backstop the social security program. There is no legitimate financial reason that it can’t be funded by general tax revenue or Federal debt. The only reason for the social security tax was to give people that sense of entitlement. I paid for this benefit, and I am therefore entitled to this benefit. When people feel that they have a genuine entitlement to something, it’s going to be nearly impossible to convince them to give it up. The issue comes in when wages don’t keep up with inflation. In that case, the taxes that are coming out of paychecks to fund Social Security remain tied to the lower wages, not the rising cost of living, but the benefits received at the end are tied to inflation. So you have a declining tax rate at the same time you have an increasing tax burden. Removing the cap would help to alleviate that imbalance, but it wouldn’t do anything to help with the lower wages. The people at the bottom would still be paying the same amount in taxes, and the middle class would be paying a bit more in taxes. The rich would simply find another way to structure their income. If it’s capped, then the rich don’t really care about this tax because it’s a drop in the bucket. If there is no cap, then the rich will simply restructure their pay to receive more in-kind benefits, or stock options, or other loopholes to reduce the actual “pay check” that the social security tax is drawn from. I think it would be far better to just backstop the social security program with Federal funds, and then work on gradually creating more balance in the funding structures, maybe through raising the cap, or by raising the minimum wage to ensure that more people can actually hit the cap and experience that portion of the year with a higher pay check.

​@@TheCommonS3Nse hummm raise minimum wage so much to make more people hit that cap. That is one hell of a raise!! I agree it'd be great but I don't think that's a practical solution unfortunately😢. You've got to start somewhere though, and "scrap the cap" sounds good to me.

Yep, the old Commie.

Your right, dumb voters, millions of them. Unbelievable the uneducated. Like the assault on the Capitol. Hooliganism.

Just because people have toe play the game they've been dealt into doesn't mean they have to like and support the game.

Lefty billionaires that don't want YOU to ever be really wealthy.

Sorry but you’re wrong. It’s not the Republicans that are ignoring Social Security going broke. The Republicans chastised Biden for his excessive spending while ignoring SS, Pensions and Medicare going broke.

If every American citizen had your awareness, we could do it.

He’s a fighter. He will never quit.

As a progressive, it irks me that Biden never talks about this SS dilemma. 😢

Just like Goebbels, eh?

@@tapdancingcowgirl4767 As a progressive, you will never learn.

He is still working to educate, it’s important work.

Democracy is a great evil. It is so bad. Our American country is a Republic first and foremost. The founding father, Benjamin Rush, is quoted as saying, "A simple democracy is the devil's own government." The boomer generation is so utterly lost, brainwashed by a post-WWII foundation MYTH that you cannot see reality. Truly a sad bunch captured young by satan's tribe and led astray, up to the point that you allowed for the destruction of the family and the systematic murder of unborn human beings. And you still moan and bleet about democracy. Democracy is the god that failed. You are just talking about communism, and you cannot even see it. So sick and sad. If i couldn't laugh at the black comedy, I'd weep for the death of my country.

I love what he does now but he was in the government of the neo-lib who turned the Democrats right. He could have at least tried to stop his friend back then from being Reagan 1.5. I am still a Democrat but only because real leftists don't have a better choice.

A flat tax would be more to 'the point' but the commie democrats ALWAYS love spending money we don't have on themselves and idiotic things like 'climate change', which used to be global warming until they were found to be frauds.

Amen to that. What is in their basket of goods. As you say everything I buy is 25% more than just 2 years ago. As a Federal Government employee I got a 4% raise.

The government is claiming the inflation rate is under 10 percent but most people know everything they buy has gone up at a much greater rate than that the government lies about everything including the poverty rate and the unemployment rate and the amount of homeless people in America which the well off politicians have completely turned their backs on we would not want the well off to feel bad about all their excessive wealth would we

They use a different COLA formula to save money. There isn't enough SS income there. Why do people envision Uncle Sam as sitting on a pile of money and wanting to be mean?

@@SandfordSmythe Because they are/do? They borrow trillions to pay for aircraft carriers and million-dollar each missles to kill people.

@@SandfordSmythe "The Only way to deal with a Starving person is to Feed or kill them."

Right on. Well said,

Reminds me of Michelle Bachmann complaining about people getting $125 SNAP food payments while her farm received $150,000 in crop subsidies from the government. Stop the crop subsidies started during the depression and give food aid to hungry people so they can afford to buy the food Bachmann grows. Let the capital markets decide the price for farm crops instead of crony capitalism.

@@bobs182 big problem now is how many farms are foreign owned. The processing plants farmers sell to are also foreign owned, sold out by American CEO's in order to get a huge bonus. These plants squeeze American farmers out by controlling prices and buying legislators with the profits.

The gangster-capitalists in America make very sure that the government serves their needs first, and above all others. This is a systemic problem, with both parties now deeply implicated in the evils that have arisen from it in this century.

Absolutely. Why don't those in government that say they support equality find ways to get those points out in the public more. The other side does a great job of fearmongering their false statements. Ya, I know they are still rich government too.🤦‍♀️

> Since you're not working when you're older, social security is not getting your income That's.. kind of the point of social security. You pay into it during your career, and you get the money back out when you retire. The idea that wages would have been stifled so harshly for so long that people can't even contemplate retiring was not really on the radar back then. That's a whole new era of economic fuckery rooted in Reagan's policies but not actually realized until after he was out of office.

If you think this is a good video then why are you against Social Security being taxed? it helps keep the system solvent and only upper income pay any substantial tax on their Social Security. I don't understand your rationale.

@@DonaldMains Most people don't know the tax returns to SS, and it's a form of means testing to make the rich get less.

@@DonaldMains my social security is taxed at the max 75% is w

I pay on 1000. I'm at the lower end of middle class according to tax table and KY taxes have gone up 15% because we always pay the most on the least. I'm a widowed have no deductions ! 26% tax brax mg et

The GOP ate my homework!!! Yeah yeah the demonrats molested my daughter, sniffed her hair, tried to rape her, tried to abort her first, and then stole her retirement to send to Ukraine (and right back to Joe thru money laundering) but its that GOP that is a danger.

Stephanie Kelton made a great point when she said that we shouldn't ask "can we afford the money?": it's really a question of whether we can afford the resources and labor needed to get stuff done. Another way is to say that the only limit to government spending is the productive capacity of the nation.

Social security is a ponzi scheme, it's always been abused and it's always out of money because the top of the pyramid always grows.

But this is just as biased. SS benefits are capped as well. If the cap is raised would you also approve removing the cap on SS benefits?

@@mark.harveyno, it is a benefit to all of society keep seniors from becoming homeless. That is their reward

We are not wealthy. The fed reserve prints currency from nothing. It is all debt. You are a debt slave. But keep crying about fighting other rats within the prison. That will solve it. Deerrrrpppppp

US is NOT the the wealthiest country in the world. You are just quoting idiots. It is definitely one of the wealthiest countries in the world and it should be able to afford decent retirement and healthcare for all of its residents. What can be accomplished if people vote to elect democratic president and 2 years later they vote to elect republican congress. This happens time and again. It is not just the rich who are pulling the strings. It is US voters who are either dumb or uninformed. If democrats were given overwhelming majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives, plus executive office, then things would have changed. Until then, thoughts and prayers.

Thanks to Reagan, unemployment benefits were also taxed for the first time.

I was told by my high school civics teacher, that if you want to be a lawmaker, get rich first, or you’ll never have a say. That was sixty years ago, and he was right.

oh yes i remember" trickle down". scam right from the get go....and then "service economy" was in there too

People have no idea how SS is financed and they will have no idea what you are talking about.

More irony: fought alongside bolshevik communism and destroyed Europe. Became comminists to destroy America. Still communists. Western Civilization continues to die.

@larryroubaix5123 Well, after all, it is a fact that criminals(FQP) prey on children and the ELDERLY.

SPOT ON, VOTING 4 THE HORRID RATPUBS IS A VOTE AGAINST YOURSELF......ONLY AN IDIOT WOULD VOTE THAT WAY??????💙💙💙💙💙

I've learned never to underestimate the power of stupidity and culture war identity politics. Republicans will vote to cut off their own noses to spite their face.

GOP: Mission Accomplished!

where do you live where 7.25 $ is minimum? there are ton of tweaks and changed that we could make so that those who actually need it get it but the one who make the rules will never allow it

@@meticulousperversions9064 Idaho unfortunately. Red states are bent on keeping wages for anybody who isn't rich as low as possible. We need to raise taxes on the rich to what they were before Reagan was president.

My first job out of college paid me just above the minimum wage and it was $4.75 an hour....that was in 1979! My boss told me back then that no one should be paid only the minimum wage because it sends the message that if they could pay you less, they would....BTW- About 9 years before this, my parents bought a custom built home on a canal in the NE area of Fort Lauderdale, FL for $37,000. That same home is worth well over $1 million today. A gallon of milk cost $0.43 and bottle of Coca Cola was $0.07. I paid for college by working a summer job and it cost me around $1800....

You are aware that the top five percent pay sixty percent of the federal taxes

@@fritzforsthoefel8031 And they still have money left over to bribe our politicians and pay to keep us down.

We can thank Raygun--CONservatives' hero for taxing OUR Social Security!

GOOD JOB!

You're actually going to blame a socialist program architecture on capitalism? Seriously? Under free market capitalism, there would be no SS program. You would get to keep that money so that YOU can invest it in a manner that suits you. The entire program was put into action under a socialist-lite president.

SS is to pay for retirement, not to supplement your working. It doesn't have money as it is.

@@SandfordSmythe Maybe you missed the part where SS is money WE put in it our entire working lives. It's not some "free entitlement" pot to be withheld or reduced for any reason. There is also no legitimate reason to double tax any earnings from our "second careers" - they're taxed plenty on the front end. (SS is also, in a twist of sheer legislative malice, taxed). Here's a fun fact: pensions have no such restriction on earnings during retirement. For example, retired employees earning healthy pensions of $80-$90k/year can earn as much as they want without that "retirement stipend" being reduced. Why? They funded SS the same way they funded their pensions - payroll deductions on their earnings. I wonder if it could be because people dependent on SS are more likely to have been lower income workers without the option or ability to be employed where pensions were offered? They're older people who have fewer assets and much more economic vulnerability than the well-compensated pensioned employee? Likely they already receive a very low stipend from SS (a friend I know receives $700/month) but if she takes a job to supplement that, the government has chosen to pass a law to take even that small pittance away. Certainly seems like the law makes it more likely for poorer retirees to remain in that low-income situation, doesn't it? Why do that? Finally, if SS is in danger insolvency then the solution is to eliminate the salary cap and make the rich pay into the fund at 100% of their earnings. Maybe watch the video? Problem solved (until Congress creates another one).

Why we need UBI

Your father needs a full Medicare system. That's why the USA needs national health insurance- Medicare with negotiable cost controls for all!

American workers go through life as prey for Doctors, Lawyers, and Indian Chiefs. Those who need support after 67 should get help. Cradle to the grave minimum wage is a crime.

Universal income meaning free money for nothing you are a bum that wants something at our childrens expense our debt is bigger than our entire economy already that our children will have to pay for and you want free money at there expense to why do you hate our children

You won't pay enough taxes to pay for the social programs we have now our children will inherit a bankrupt shell of a nation because of people like you who thinks everything is free why do you not pay enough taxes to pay for the handouts Democrats want instead of bankrupting our nation

Your definition

We have them outnumbered!! It's down to the education of rightwing voters that is a problem--atleast just for today. Because as we get closer to 2033 or whatever year that cut in Soc Sec is taking place, you better believe rightwing voters will be hearing all about it!! And they aren't going to like it at all! The uber rich want Americans to be apathetic and make their arguments FOR THEM. I refuse. We all need to fight them back. 60+ million Americans receive Social Security!! That's a very powerful number. Stay focused and organized.

Emigrate

@@kinghenry8615 Emigrate? Brilliant solution! The sort of brilliance a slug would come up with, Einstein!

as long as the DEms keep being a wishy washy unfocused mess, the GOP will be around

what power, it was the dems that Made the mess Starting with LBJ

And all the Congresspeople get to keep their salaries the rest of their lives, along with free healthcare.

Just because it's simple, doesn't mean it's easy

​@@suzannepottsshortsWe have to get use to that. Doing work to better our lives. If we don't, nobody else will.

The RATPUBS will NEVER GET RID OF THE *CAP* IT BENEFITS THEIR HORRID WEALTHY BASE ...VOTE BLUE 💙🇺🇸💙💙🌊🌊

Wealthy people's grab for more power and money will someday result in their decline as do most extremes.

You might know if you had put the money in a retirement account instead of contributing to the social security ponzi scheme

If you don't know what social security is then you are part of the problem.

You WILL know retirement and Social Security if enough of you vote Democratic and lean on your Senators and Congresspeople hard enough. It's politics.

Keep an eye on how many of the rich start hedging their bets against increased wealth taxes.

Not enough Americans are saying this: TAX THE F'g RICH. Yes, part of that is "scrapping the cap."

@@andreah6379 Typical liberal answer, Rinse and repeat.

Michael so you don't think rich and huge corps shouldn't pay a fair share??

@@michaelcap9550 I would like to see a transparent tax system where everyone including billionaires and Mega millionaires and all capitalist businesses pay the actual amount of taxes that the tax laws say they owe the working class have their taxes taken directly from their payroll checks and mostly can not cheat and not pay their fair share

Fascinating is a leftist movement. Mussolini was a socialist.

Also productivity has more than tripled in the past 30 years. Even with the aging population paying for social security should be far easier now than it was in the 50's.

​@MrMarinus18 productivity may be up. But quality of jobs and number of positions In well paying jobs is down. Think about it, in 50s to mid 80s how many people worked manufacturing. Today you have 1 person doing what 40+ years ago took 4+ people to do. And because the machines are automated it's no longer a skilled job.

@@tfde1 But that is a matter of choice. We do have enough productivity in the system to easily support social security. What we are missing are powerful enough unions to force companies to pay into it. It's important to remember that pay is decided on by corporations. Corporations can pay everyone more, they just don't want to.

If you want to make America safe again for poor and disabled then vote Trump. The man actually has a plan to fix the homeless and inequality problems in this country.

It’s capped at a 147,000 because when you collect after you retire the benefits are capped… what rational reason is there to pay more into a retirement account than you’d receive in benefits?

i understand the benefits u receive r based on ypur working income But that would probably only give u maybe 2 yrs of ss at retirement. the system was designed so that 40 to 50 yr olds teaching their highest point in income contribute to ss amd that is wjete your ss in retorement comes from. Obviously u completely defeat the whole intention by capping ss tx on these ypunger folks. And btw devlining birtjrates wii eventually undermine it all. Thanks DInks!!!!!

sorry on misstrokes. hope its clear enuf.

Ultimately MMT basically shows that governments are able to choose who they want to give money too. Fiscal constraints are mostly just arguments about who should get more than others. The Federal Government does not run like a household.

@@alvinsoehendrywijaya How ridiculous. In your world a disabled person would not get benefits because they couldn't afford it. Some of us, most of us really, don't want to live in a world where we let people die because of disability, age or other reason. We are happy to live in a world where we take care of those people. And ultimately, fair is a stupid word. Life isn't fair. We want to create one that is kind and is better for the next generation. So, income and wealth tax are the way to go, and ultimately, you wouldn't be getting that income and wealth without a strong country around you, so that meets your criteria as well.

GOOD !!! MAKE IT HAPPEN !!!

Yes I bet it would as well.

Is 37% of they're income not enough?

That would only send them overseas.

"...I’m beginning to wonder if she was right" It's political. It depends on who you and others your age vote for. Vote blue!

She is absolutely right. Most Americans are losing money when the Social Security tax is taken out of their paychecks.

That's funny. I don't think I had any idea what SS was in third grade, and guessing no teacher said anything about taxes to us at that time.

You're beginning to wonder? There have been predictions it will be broke b the mid to late 2030s for decades now.

@@calamityjean1525 No it doesn't matter who you vote for. The Democrats have done absolutely nothing to avoid the collapse of SS when it was relatively easy. Now that it's pretty much impossible they'll do less.

Crying Democratic Party pedophile supporter cries about the GOP being slightly less evil and demonic than the Democrats. Many such cases.

😂 it not republicans fault you don't understand how a ponzi scheme works. Social security is a ponzi scheme, you always put in more than you take out. You leftists love wealth redistribution until it happens to you 😂. Should put that money in a retirement account instead of paying SS and you'd have plenty of money.

No it's not like that........when SS was enacted there was no fund , so the people working started paying for the retirees that, have never contributed to the fund.....and this is happening even today ..!!! You Payed for the old ones when you worked ....and now the young ones are paying for you ......!!! it's clear now..?

@@bogdan78pop What's clear is that there are extremely wealthy Americans that aren't paying their fair share on taxes AND Social Security. Something needs to be done & the GOP isn't willing to rock the boat!

@@roywhitman7109 I'm right there with you ....but i wanted to make clear how the system was designed ...i don't pay for my own ss check......i pay for people that came before ....!!!

100%!!!

Define "fair share". Give me a number.

@@u686st76.2% of their ENTIRE compensation. Just like hourly workers.

Still a communist, even in retirement.

@@paulamartin6724 Yep, fair means pay in at the same or a higher rate than low wage workers.

But they only pay 24% of total US tax revenue. Somehow, payroll tax isn't considered "income" tax, even though it is based on income. 1984

Damn right. Reagan was a disaster.

@@eatmorenachos he was. He was the worst president we’ve ever had, until trump.

​@@eatmorenachosbiden is the worst president ever besides both parties are to blame for social security the rep want to raise the retirement age rate is wrong and the dem do not think anything is wrong.

Who would have thought "Trickle Down Economics" wasn't going to work like he said it would? The answer is me and everyone else in the 90% of earners...Same thing with getting rid of Unions and jobs that offered pensions, nobody thought that was a good policy yet here we are....

@@davidsebastianelli1326 Yet blue collar workers and union members still love him. He would never have been elected without their vote. Teamsters actually endorsed him. And it's been downhill for unions and working people ever since. Make it Make sense.

The existence of billionaires is a symptom of societal failure.

No kidding. Most people never seem to think about the basic fact of our economy is that the mega wealthy couldn't generate passive streams of wealth without millions of peons to work in their jobs!!!!

Im in canada on assistance I do not recieve close enough to even cover rent in a small town. its real bad here too eh

Canada? lol

Your money isn't even real.

Exactly!

Yeah, Congress spent every penny, but don't worry, they promised to tax someone in the future to pay our benefits.

That's not the problem though. It's not that the IOUs are going to default, it's that there aren't enough of the IOUs (even when paid back) to cover the outflows.

This money is being paid back now, and it will supplement the defict SS tax until it runs out.

When you attack the GOP....lol. no mention of demonic pedophiles in office huh? Vote for the Blue demon pedophiles or vote for the Red demon pedophiles.

When Trump ran in 2020, he said that he would permanently do away with payroll taxes if elected. This would defund SS. He did a temporary voluntary delay on collecting payroll taxes due to covid which was a prelude to destroying SS.

No, it was all invested in Treasury bonds.

@@SandfordSmythe treasury bond money is primarily used to fix spending deficit, isn't it?

@donstaples4812 And my $100,000 bank CD is used by some stranger to buy a house. The appeal of the proposed SS Act during the Depression was that Congress could have some cash to help out their constituents. FICA money goes anonymously into the Treasury. It is used to pay a little bit of everything.

Who would you sell them to ?