Ted Rall's thoughts on the Social Security "crisis"

[OnlyInAmerica]

Pretty good opinion column.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=127&ncid=748&e=1&u=/ucru/20041222/cm_ucru/savesocialsecuritywiththeflattax

<snip>

"Unless something changes, the system's trustees project that Social Security will run up a total shortfall of $3.7 trillion (in 2004 dollars) through 2080. But that could easily be fixed by overhauling the current 12.4 percent Social Security payroll tax, a highly regressive burden that falls only on people who earn less than $87,500 a year. "

"The U.S. workforce is made up of 228 million employees who earned a total of $6.7 trillion last year. The richest one percent took away a whopping $1.8 trillion, or over 26 percent of America's national income. Wanna guess where the one percent-99 percent divide is? Interesting coincidence: at $87,500 a year. Slap the same 12.4 percent FICA payroll tax on the over-$87,500 crowd--the kind of "flat tax" that makes Steve Forbes (news - web sites)' cheeks flush--and you bring in $219 billion a year. That puts the system into the black starting in 2037 and as far beyond that as a CPA can see."

More at the link above