> Let's be brutally honest and ask who's really to blame for this. The people who designed SS to be funded out of payroll taxes instead of corporate taxes, buy

> Let's be brutally honest and ask who's really to blame for this. The people who designed SS to be funded out of payroll taxes instead of corporate taxes, buybacks, and dividends. No seriously, hear me out. As the economy became more efficient, fewer and fewer highly-paid workers are needed to work in it. This leads to overall lower SS tax per head being collected as the economy becomes more productive. What you really want is for the growth of the economy to be captured in supporting seniors - so tax the indicators of that growth. Unfortunately they had real, political reasons for setting it up that way. Funding it with payroll taxes was the only way to get the bill passed, and ensure it wouldn't be gutted. (I'm paraphrasing from books I've read). And the people who paid into the program would feel morally entitled to receive benefits, and thus would always support the program.