re: I support Trumps proposed cuts to Social Security!

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Will happily give up what I've put in thus far if I don't have to contribute from now on.

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This is the only thing that can stop the bleeding. Give people a chance to opt out in the middle of their careers. Leave it mandatory until age 40 to pay off all those closer to retirement. It will eventually phase out because it’s a bad economic deal.

FICA taxes are essentially a regressive tax. As many games as politicians play with tax rates, FICA is ignored. Your effective tax rate starts at 15.3% on your first and every dollar earned.

If a person made $30k each year for 40 years, and was forced to put 15.3% of their income in
a fund that paid 5% interest, they would have $550k+ at the end. That’s roughly enough to pay themselves that same $30k/year for the next 20 years. The math gets better the more you make (people that make more would be more likely to opt out, giving the plan more funds - resulting in the “rich” paying in much more than they get out). A person at retirement age now has a choice whether to keep earning, and have something to leave behind, to make gifts, contribute to charity, start a new business, etc. Who isn’t taking that deal over the current law? There is a goal and actual dollar figure at the end of that road. That has already been proven to motivate people with retirement accounts.

Social security is a scam. And I hate to say it, but those that grip onto their contributions so tightly and won’t hear about cutting it are selfish, essentially dooming their kids and grandkids into being stuck in the Ponzi scheme for long enough that they won’t hear about cutting it either. So my proposal is to give people an out when they can still see they were used and got squeezed, but young enough that they are not relying on the money, and old enough to know whether they won’t be able to out save the government option (that would still be available to those that contribute).

I do realize I’m lumping in Medicare into this equation, but similar improvements and choices could be implemented in that regard.