OK I have been stymied by stupid dtuff, and took it out on your question. Since the argument involved a lot of long urls and calculations I threw it into html and it is here:
http://d903964.u27.0web-hosting.com/socialsecurity.html It isn't meant to be pretty, just legible. But this is why I say that Social Security redistributes income from poor families to affluent little old white ladies. I can't take credit for the argument, it is from my anthro class last semester and something similar is outlined in Anasazi America by David Stuart, UNM Press 1999. But he cites journal articles you and I dont have easy access to so I went out and found some census data. Please feel free to check the math. Also I wasn't sure if withholding stops altogether at 87,000 or the rate drops. I thought the rate dropped, but the one IRS thing I was looking at seems to be saying it stopped altogether. But this is not crucial to the argument, which primarily relies on mortality data. Dana Nick McClure writes: > The system doesn't take money from the poor and give it to the rich, it just > doesn't take as much from the rich, or anybody else for that matter. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Dana Tierney [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 4:08 PM > > To: CF-Community > > Subject: Re: What the Bush tax cut could have paid for > > > > Well, first of all, such a measure has no hope of passage. To discuss the > > hypothetical however, I would be in favor of just about any means test as > > long as there *was* one. I just don't think it is right to take money > > from > > people who are struggling for survival and give it to people who don't > > need > > it. To stop doing this would not be punishing the rich for being rich, it > > would just be *not* giving them money they don't need. While we are at it > > maybe we could reform the structure of the tax, and maybe drop the > > retirement age so a black man an actual chance of benefiting from the > > system he is paying into. Do you honestly think the poor slob working at > > the minumum wage needs his money less than Bill Gates? > > > > Beyond all that though is the fact that the system is gonna go bankrupt if > > it continues as is. > > > > Dana > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. http://www.cfhosting.com Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
