Selling Increasing The Cap : Separating Out The Noise

There are a number of reasons that people want to increase the cap on wages subject to payroll taxes.  Some reasons are good, some bad, and some noise. 

Supporters falsely claim that Social Security is a regressive tax, when the system is as a whole highly progressive.  It is intentionally designed to be progressive. 

They also claim that wage inequality has caused the problems of Social Security.  The data is cherry-picked to mislead the reader.  The changes occurred mostly in the mid-80s.  I think we can all agree that wage inequality in 2016 has nothing to do with how wages were allocated in the 1980s.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/06/soaking_the_rich_to_pay_more_than_their_fair_share_for_social_security.html 

Myths About Social Security And Counting Beans

I love Social Security.  I hate reading myths about it.

Everyone has a fact that is someone else’s myth. The arguments for and against quickly devolve into academic waterboarding in which how we count the beans becomes more important than the actual number of beans. In every myth, there is invariably some technical definition hidden in the nomenclature. 

The only way to sort out the difference is to conduct the research yourself to sort out what the myth is actually saying. Last month, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released a list of 9 myths. Weeks later, Alicia H. Munnell rebutted that list in a MarketWatch piece. 

This piece (“The Dueling Myths of Social Security”) explains what is hidden in the lexicon.