1111
It's rigged
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this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2026
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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Can somebody eli12 it for me?
Social Securiry benefits are paid out based in how much you earned during your working years. If you earned more money while working, you get higher monthly benefits when you retire. Up to a certian point:
These benefits cap out at a certain limit. Accordingly, the social security taxes also cap out at a certain limit. Beyond that income you do ‘t get any higher Social Security benefits and you don’t pay any higher Social Security taxes.
This is because Social Security is not designed to be a progressive tax like the income tax is.
Our tax system overall should be more progressive. Maybe social security should be part of that. But it was never designed to do this.
Tax brackets are the fundamental way that income tax is used regressive: the higher your income, the higher percentage you pay on that (marginal) income
In addition to “income” shenanigans available to the wealthy, the highest tax bracket is at $750,000 (couples filing jointly). While that’s certainly a lot of income, the percentage never goes higher. Someone earning that pays the same percentage on marginal income as a ten millionaire or a hundred millionaire or a billionaire. It stops progressing
We need to bring back the 92% (marginal) tax bracket.
There's a cap on how much you (and your employer) pay per SSN / year. So, for particularly high wages or salaries, the percentage goes down, for every dollar made above the cap.
Also, things like stock( option)s often made up a significant portion of compensation for high earners and those aren't subject to SSI tax at all, IIRC.
Social Security is not designed to redistribute a ton of money from the rich to the poor. And it isn't used to fund the government so it doesn't make the rich pay their "fair share". It's intended to force people to save so we don't have a ton of poor seniors around.
Rich people are taxed up to a certain amount. So the rich and super rich pay in the same maximum dollar amount. But on the other side the benefits that they get out are capped in the same way.
It's not supposed to be like a retirement plan where you assume you're going to live on 80% of your income in retirement. It's just there to ensure you have "enough". The most money an individual can get out of social security, the maximum benefit, is $5181/month.
To be a little more accurate, Social Security Disability Insurance is redistributive by design.
The richer you are the more you take and the less you pay back into the system that made you rich. But the parasites will argue their smaller percentage paid in taxes is fine cause of their size even though it means they hoard a larger percentage of their wealth.