re: #822 engineer dog

first of all, don’t lump social security and medicare together. they are very different programs with very different problems

the social security trustees currently predict that soon the fund will start taking in less than it pays out on a continuing basis(it has always made a profit until the past two years), and the fund will not be able to pay full benefits by 2036 or so. at that time they estimate that if nothing has been done by then, they will only be able to pay out about 75% of benefits

the social security trustees are the board legally charged with the management of social security, so i tend to believe what they say a lot more than the many pundits and columnists who sound off on the subject with vague, alarming, inaccurate pronouncement

many people estimate that social securities problems could be solved by increasing the current cap on social security contributions from $106,500 to, say, $150,000. this would mean that people making over $106,500 per year, as well as their employers, would have to pay at most another three and a half grand per year into the fund. i would be among those people and i think i could manage it

as for medicare, i know much less about it and it seems to be a much more difficlt problem. i will only say that it is well known that we pay more for less excellent overall health care than many other nations whose medical systems would be considered ‘socialized medicine” in the context of the united states

of course, all other nations have more socialist medical financing systems than the united states

all of them

Are you sure? I hadn’t heard of Japan doing that. As to social security, if you raise the limit on what’s taxable, to stay with the current law, don’t you have to raise those folks’ benefits down the road? If so, actuarially, you haven’t solved anything.

If you raise the taxes, but leave benefits fixed, then all you’ve done is levied a tax on your cohort to pay benefits to mine. I don’t think I deserve it. In fact, I know I don’t. I don’t see why I should run a handy profit on my own contributions to social security, at your expense.

I think benefits should be trimmed for those who stand to receive upper tier payouts. Trimmed so that they get their contributions back, adjusted for inflation, and maybe a little more, but not handsomely more. Trimmed enough that the current social security tax take can cover the outlays.