We do have income taxes that apply to “high” retirement benefits, but we could definitely reconsider the formula for linking pensions to lifetime earnings. This change, however would not in itself do much for long-term projections of the deficits of the pension AND health insurance systems.
We should shift the financing of these (and unemployment benefits from wage taxation to a VAT which a) taxes consumption rather than income that is partly savings and b) is probably easier to adjust to keep the sub-sustem if fiscal equilibrium.
Overall shifting to a consumption base seems like the more economically efficient way to tax...but in most places that have a VAT it comes on top of the income and wage-based tax system. So beware what you ask for. Instead of a swap, you might end up with both, and income/wage based taxation system plus a VAT on top. Hungry, hungry Uncle Sam...
Even a bit of that would be OK. We need a lot of revenue to close the deficit. Say VAT for health insurance and unemployment insurance and leave SS with the wage tax.
I mean, the government already admits they're stealing your income under the guise of "contributions", when in fact it's a tax. Why not just make it official as another Progressive Tax, your social security payments were, in fact, simply another way of taking your money with a con rather than an investment in your own future.
That's if we're not going to do the moral thing and simply pay back what was stolen and get rid of it.
We do have income taxes that apply to “high” retirement benefits, but we could definitely reconsider the formula for linking pensions to lifetime earnings. This change, however would not in itself do much for long-term projections of the deficits of the pension AND health insurance systems.
We should shift the financing of these (and unemployment benefits from wage taxation to a VAT which a) taxes consumption rather than income that is partly savings and b) is probably easier to adjust to keep the sub-sustem if fiscal equilibrium.
Overall shifting to a consumption base seems like the more economically efficient way to tax...but in most places that have a VAT it comes on top of the income and wage-based tax system. So beware what you ask for. Instead of a swap, you might end up with both, and income/wage based taxation system plus a VAT on top. Hungry, hungry Uncle Sam...
Even a bit of that would be OK. We need a lot of revenue to close the deficit. Say VAT for health insurance and unemployment insurance and leave SS with the wage tax.
I mean, the government already admits they're stealing your income under the guise of "contributions", when in fact it's a tax. Why not just make it official as another Progressive Tax, your social security payments were, in fact, simply another way of taking your money with a con rather than an investment in your own future.
That's if we're not going to do the moral thing and simply pay back what was stolen and get rid of it.
I agree that calling Social Security payroll taxes contributions is misleading. We should call a spade a spade and a tax a tax.