26 July 2009

How About Just Dropping the Maximum Payroll Tax Limit

You know, when the Wall Street Journal is discussing how the the increasingly excessive pay for executives is endangering Social Security, it's time to do something.

We are not talking about the Workers' Daily World here, or even the New York Times. We are talking about the daily voice of "rich pig capitalism", and they are talking about how much this is damaging to society:
...

Executives and other highly compensated employees now receive more than one-third of all pay in the U.S., according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Social Security Administration data -- without counting billions of dollars more in pay that remains off federal radar screens that measure wages and salaries.

...

The growing portion of pay that exceeds the maximum amount subject to payroll taxes has contributed to the weakening of the Social Security trust fund. In May, the government said the Social Security fund would be exhausted in 2037, four years earlier than was predicted in 2008.
(emphasis mine)

Here's a solution, have the employers portion of social security apply to all forms of remuneration that could be construed as wages, with out a top end to be taxed, and have the employee portion kick in above $1 million a year.

You could call it the They Who Must Not Be Named, Terell Owens, or Bernie Madoff tax.

Seriously, wages in this case are zero sum. When these guys get more, the rest of us get less.

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