Why is there a ceiling on wages subject to SS & medicare withholding?

[Yupster]

8. Social security uses a bendpoints formula to figure payouts

If a person contributes five times more into social security than another person he doesn't get five times the benefit - more like two times the benefit. So the program is already skewed toward lower wage workers or people who didn't work so many years.

This is unlike most teacher pension funds like Teacher Retirement plans where a principal whop made double a teacher gets double the benefit and a teacher who makes three times what a cafeteria worker makes gets three times the benefit.

I have long advocated a two prong plan to save social security, one each that each party would be against.

1. Lift the cap on earnings and benefits.

2. Make the program universal by bringing everyone into it including teachers who are not currently in it.

Those two prongs would save the program and would ask each party to give something up.