Reply #16: Are you arguing that there should be no cap on salary for contributions?

[cascadiance]

If so, I would agree with you. If you are saying that it should be means tested and just raise the cap a little, it's going to hit hardest the upper middle class, who are going to be on the hook for more contributions and get back less. That's a sure way to widen the wealth gap even moreso.

I'm for getting rid of the cap altogether, so that folks like Bill Gates have to also think of this as an investment and not a "tax" that can be treated as such in the coming years and screw those of us who've put significant amounts of our income into the fund compared to the very wealthy. Even if it would mean giving them back a bit more money than the rest of us in SS payments, that's probably not such a bad thing, as it still puts them "on the hook" for wanting to keep this as an investment that they want their money back on and not have middlemen "steal" from it like Bush is proposing.

After all, another thing to consider is that the wealthy, with better health care than the rest of us are likely to live longer than the rest of us and collect more of the benefits than the rest of us are too. They should therefore not feel penalized paying more into the system from that point of view too.