The great F.D.R. never intended Social Security to be a savings account type of system. It was intended to take care of the nations elderly in their “ old age “. Back then “ old age “ would lead to different outcomes, according to ones social class. The well off and wealthy had no issues, the middle classes, usually had relatives to care for them. The poor ( ah, that was a different story ), they were in most cases homeless, hungry and sick.
Social Security was conceived to take care of all the elderly, when their working lives were over. But, through the years the program hasn’t lived up to the aspirations that the authors had envisioned.
Lets first look at the biased collection of Social Security deductions, or as it has been listed through the years on payroll checks as FICA, SS, or OASDI - Also included in the deduction is Medicare. The maximum taxable amount of income subject to tax is $142,800 in 2021. That means that anyone who makes under that income must pay the tax rate on every penny they earn; those who earn above the $142,800 don’t have to pay a penny on income above that amount.
Without going into too much detail — ( the curious can look here: www.123paystubs.com/resources/fica-tax-and-wage-base-limit , or do an online search for information on SS and Medicare particulars ) — the wealthy and employers wind up getting the breaks on the taxes here.
Benefits to beneficiaries vary widely; from around $800/$900 on the bottom end and up to $3000 and change on the upper end. The beneficiaries that earn the benefits near the bottom and even up to double the bottom benefit “ don’t earn enough to survive decently “ and contrary to the widespread arguments against them — they didn’t earn enough throughout their lives at near minimum wages to save and put away money for retirement. The beneficiaries near the upper limit though “ earn enough in benefits to live decently “ although they for the most part don’t even need the money due to investments and the substantial incomes they were fortunate enough to earn throughout their working lives. I don’t say that they don’t deserve a benefit for the funds they contributed — but as anyone with common sense can see “ the well off are receiving benefits they don’t even need and the people in the bottom half of the SS benefit range are living in poverty in their old age “.
IMO — after a lifetime of work; both the well off and the poor deserve a decent and livable retirement income from SS in their “ old age “. If somehow the well off squandered their vast incomes they too could count on a livable and respectable income from SS.
Like in a civilized and decent society, I believe that first of all the cutoff on the upper income taxable amount should be abolished. Everyone should pay the same percentage of tax on every penny they earn, this would be fair and also increase the revenue to the system considerably. There should be 2 available retirement ages — 62 and 65 ( many lower wage workers aren’t in a condition to wait until 70 or later to reap a better payback ) . At the present time the benefit for those who retire at 62 should be $2,250 per month and for those that retire at 65 it should be $2,500 per month — Those are the “ only benefit amounts FOR ALL BENEFICIARIES “. Those amounts would need to be indexed to a REALISTIC COLA ( that takes into account all annual increases to the cost of living — shelter, healthcare, groceries, clothing, recreation, etc.. ) and the benefit for both ages should be annually adjusted to prevent decay of its buying power! Like I stated in the beginning “ Social Security was never intended to be a personal savings account “ and even if some believe it was; it isn’t accomplishing what it was intended to, and the well off are in many cases — receiving money that they could burn, while more than one quartile of our citizens ( who mostly struggled their whole lives to get by ) are living in poverty in their “ golden years “.
Its time to relinquish the choking hold that rampant capitalism, and greedy investors/employers have held on the standard of living for millions in America —------ “ at the least in their last years of life “…..