It seems to me every citizen in the richest country in the world should have a baseline prosperity at least somewhat above the poverty level. There will always be people who want more than the baseline, and they should be free to work l.awfully towards the goals. The vast income inequality should not be a feature of a well-governed rep…
It seems to me every citizen in the richest country in the world should have a baseline prosperity at least somewhat above the poverty level. There will always be people who want more than the baseline, and they should be free to work l.awfully towards the goals. The vast income inequality should not be a feature of a well-governed republic.
But let the bottom even start pulling themselves up by their bootstraps (see https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-06-08/us-income-inequality-fell-during-the-covid-pandemic) and the first thing the GOP wants to do is put "entitlements" and government benefits on the chopping block, because they see it as a zero-sum situation. Every dollar that goes to the poorest among us is one less dollar for them, even if they already have more money than they or their offspring for at least three generations can possibly spend, even after paying for, say, a vanity rocket to space.
You are correct that most people talking up a hot civil war have no idea what they are talking about.
(As an aside, there are a few things we could do with Social Security, which is designed as an insurance program against indigent o;d age. One reason there is a Social Security income ceiling is the assumption that if you are making $over 147,000 per year (in 2022), which is nearly twice the median income (https://seekingalpha.com/article/4491634-median-household-income-january-2022), then presumably you do not need the insurance and do not need to be paying premiums, also known as your FICA contributions.
If you made twice the median income and start drawing Social Security today, you can expect $3400 in benefits. This is a cap. You will not receive more as your income increases. Perhaps that amount should gradually reduce as your retirement increases until at some point benefits cease entirely. Because of the ceiling, some wealthy people pay as little as 0.8% FICA. Means testing as been proposed. In this report, the reduction starts at the 75th percentile. https://www.nber.org/digest/sep16/means-testing-social-security-income-versus-wealth).
It seems to me every citizen in the richest country in the world should have a baseline prosperity at least somewhat above the poverty level. There will always be people who want more than the baseline, and they should be free to work l.awfully towards the goals. The vast income inequality should not be a feature of a well-governed republic.
But let the bottom even start pulling themselves up by their bootstraps (see https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-06-08/us-income-inequality-fell-during-the-covid-pandemic) and the first thing the GOP wants to do is put "entitlements" and government benefits on the chopping block, because they see it as a zero-sum situation. Every dollar that goes to the poorest among us is one less dollar for them, even if they already have more money than they or their offspring for at least three generations can possibly spend, even after paying for, say, a vanity rocket to space.
You are correct that most people talking up a hot civil war have no idea what they are talking about.
(As an aside, there are a few things we could do with Social Security, which is designed as an insurance program against indigent o;d age. One reason there is a Social Security income ceiling is the assumption that if you are making $over 147,000 per year (in 2022), which is nearly twice the median income (https://seekingalpha.com/article/4491634-median-household-income-january-2022), then presumably you do not need the insurance and do not need to be paying premiums, also known as your FICA contributions.
If you made twice the median income and start drawing Social Security today, you can expect $3400 in benefits. This is a cap. You will not receive more as your income increases. Perhaps that amount should gradually reduce as your retirement increases until at some point benefits cease entirely. Because of the ceiling, some wealthy people pay as little as 0.8% FICA. Means testing as been proposed. In this report, the reduction starts at the 75th percentile. https://www.nber.org/digest/sep16/means-testing-social-security-income-versus-wealth).