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> They call this tax Social Security but it is just a tax like any other. SSI is collected like a tax, but, unlike almost every other tax, the money collected
by anamax 16y ago
> They call this tax Social Security but it is just a tax like any other.
SSI is collected like a tax, but, unlike almost every other tax, the money collected is mostly returned to the payer. (Folks who didn't pay much get much better return than folks who paid a lot.)
- _delirium 16y agoThis will only be true if, as seems increasingly unlikely, the social-security surpluses accumulated over the past few decades are actually used to fund social security (the mythical "lockbox"). My bet is on the money never being returned to the social-security system. In that case, the surplus portion of the payroll taxes from the past few decades should be historically reclassified as (regressive) general income taxes.
- krschultz 16y agoBut it is also the only regressive tax we have, as all income over a certain amount is untaxed. So it ends up being a really complicated curve of who gets what return on their money, so the super rich and the super poor get the best deal, while the middle class gets hosed.