Equalize Social Security tax

Under the present Social Security system, the cap on the earnings is $106,800 and the tax rate is 6.2 percent, which means a maximum of $6,621 is collected from every wage earner and the employer pays an equal amount of $6,621 for each employee. Anybody who earns $106,800 or less pays the 6.2 percent every month for an entire year. If you earn more than $106,800 you will pay the tax each month until you reach $6,621, then the tax stops.

Sounds sensible doesn’t it, but is it fair for those who have to pay the tax for a full year?

Consider the following:

Earning $1,000,000, you will pay this tax off in 5.5 weeks, at a tax rate of 0.0066 percent of total earnings.

Earning $10,000,000, you will pay this tax off in less than four days.

It is readily apparent that this tax favors the wealthy and has favored the wealthy since 1937.

A more reasonable and fair approach to this is to remove the cap and tax everyone at the same rate. This could be done by reducing the tax rate so that all will pay this tax for a full year. The only cap would be on the benefits paid out to the retirees.

Paul Slovan, Boardman