interesting plan I saw for ssi fix.It makes sense!

[gizmo1979]

I think.The plan is to give every child born 2000 dollars,into an acct,and every year after they would get 2000 more put into until the age of 18.I'am sure it would be invested or banked .At age 65 they would start getting an monthly check.I thought this made sense,because they could start it by taxing income up to 150,000 and still keep the current plan running as is until this new plan could take over.

[Inland]

1. There was a suggestion

for a tax on wealth, not income but wealth, to fund an account that could be used for anything.

But of course, no rightwinger will use tax money for anything like that, so its a dead issue.

[applegrove]

2. Great - where does the money come from? The rich being taxed more?

If that is the case - I AM IN!!!

[gizmo1979]

7. I don't know rich

but raising the tax limit from 90,000 to 150,000 is that rich.

[applegrove]

8. No - that is regressive. I want a progressive tax!

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Let parents give back the $1000 per child tax credit! Wouldn't be

$2000 a year, but a start. Yes, they would then have to pay income tax on that amount, but surely, they'd pass up the new TV for the sake of their children's futures.

[fob]

4. Sounds like your replacing the "defined benefit" of SS with a "defined

contribution" plan in the end. What happens to those that retire a year after a stock market crash? I say leave SS as the INSURANCE program that it is. It's supposed to be one lower-risk solid platform of an overall retirement plan. The government should be promoting policies that CREATE some effing jobs, you know Clinton's laser-like focus, not bush*s fuck-the-poor "focus" and leave SS the hell alone.

[Warpy]

5. Investment will never replace insurance

The point of social security is that it is pay as you go, with money always coming in, guaranteed to insure you against fraud, Ponzi schemes, Enrons, being cheated and lied to, having your own investments go belly up for any reason in the world. Insurance.

Investment has always been and should always be separate.

The way to encourage individuals to save and invest for their own retirements is to raise their goddamned wages so they can afford to. Most people are spending 100% of what they make, living paycheck to paycheck, and still coming up short at the end of the month. People are charging their groceries on those high interest Visa cards because pay has simply not kept pace with inflation for over 30 years now.

The two things that need to be done for Social Security are to remove that laughably low cap on taxable earnings and to keep FICA overpayments out of Congress's greedy paws. The system wouldn't need the former had Congress not spent 20 years using FICA hikes and overpayments to mask the disaster to the treasury that undertaxing the rich has caused.

[gizmo1979]

9. Nothing in life is a sure thing

but precautions can be taken to limit your risk,move some of the money into bonds and cds as you get closer to retirement.Studies show that at historical levels the average would be 750,000 saved by retirement.I think this would have a chance.I gurantee it's a far better idea than anything I've heard floating around the hill today.

[papau]

6. The link below is to a DU discussion of the 72 Dem plan - now union plan -

called BIG.

The Plan you describe was an idea floated by the Dems about 6 years ago - it uses up some of that surplus we had 6 years ago - and was interesting. But if the goal is taking care of the poor - the BIG plan is a solid option for today.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x109585

[MissMarple]

10. Investment is good but should be separate from insurance. IMHO

And as for progressives taxes, societies run into trouble when its wealth becomes concentrated in the hands of a few. The few then forget their roots, where their wealth came from, and how lucky they were to belong to a society that fostered such a benefit. In other words, they didn't do it all on their own. They have dues to pay to keep the society healthy, and not be allowed to bleed it dry.