Comment on Social Security can be saved. Scrap the cap!
Burninator05@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
While someone making millions should be taxed at 100% for SS like most of us, think about how much would be in the fund if capital gains were taxed that way as well.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Enough to lower the social security age from 67 years to 6-7 weeks gestational age.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Well, no.
You could lower it for sure, but the thing is, if everyone’s retired and nobody’s working, there’s no productivity, meaning there’s either no money, or money is meaningless
It could certainly be reduced by a pretty good number of years though. Enough that you start your retirement when your body and your mind is still “all there”, you get to enjoy it.
Vandals_handle@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Millions of people work for free every day, we call them volunteers. Many of our institutions including hospitals, parks, schools, sports leagues, museums, food banks, community theaters and zoos depend on volunteer staffing to run their programs.
When I hear someone say no one will work if they aren’t paid, I hear projection.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Nobody should work for free, that’s exploitation. UBI should provide basic assistance, and then people should be free to do what they want with their free time. Many, like myself, would pursue artistic goals, but many would still want to work and earn more money, and that’s okay, too. Even artists may want to sell their work.
The point is that nobody HAS to work for money, but they can if they want to.
AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
OK but a decent minority of people would complain, no?.. “If someone had to spend over a decade of their life in college and grad school to be a doctor or something, and Joe just started driving a forklift out of high school, should they both be working for free?”
As in volunteer work is typically general labor, while many things require very deep, specialized knowledge obtained thru years of schooling. Doctors, engineers, economists, etc. Im sure some people would still pursue those things out of sheer love. But I imagine for some people the potential of earning more is that extra motivation that pushes them down that path.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Where do you get the idea that nobody is working with UBI?
UBI isn’t supposed to be your entire, or even your primary source of income. The most basic concept of UBI is supposed to be enough for a roof over your head, rice and beans in your belly, and that’s about it. It’s supposed to cover the absolute essentials, not your entire lifestyle. It is supposed to remove the desperation of subsistence.
When a man is drowning, he’ll do anything to survive. When his lungs start filling with water, he’ll drown his wife and kids just for one more breath of air. When a worker is desperate, they will take any work on any exploitative terms that are offered, just to put a meal in their belly. That desperation drags down wages and conditions for everyone. The fundamental purpose of UBI is to ensure that even the most desperate among us aren’t forced into exploitation, and in doing so, drag everyone down with them.
There is no shortage of labor. We have a massive excess of labor. We have so much labor available that even though everybody currently needs to work, wages are so low that nobody has any money to spend on anything but essentials. The economy is stagnating because everybody is working, but nobody is buying anything.
UBI is a long-term solution to this untenable situation.
Eheran@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
When people are retired, as per your comment to which he replied, they are not going to work much. You can not call it retirement when people work (roughly) as much as they do now.