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Comment by nck4222 | Hacker News Reader

Man, those percentages in the chart at the end are really whacky.

Someone making $75,000/year pays a higher % tax their entire life than someone making $200,000/year? Someone making $20,000/year (at 30) pays almost twice the % as someone making $50,000/year (at 30)?

That doesn't seem right.

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SS and FICA are very regressive. It's interesting that the lowest rates roughly correspond with the median income - as if the rates were tailored to get the lowest rates to the majority of the voters, while screwing (relatively) much smaller groups at the ends of the scale.

It's not so much regressive as it is "supposed" to be a penion insurance plan separate from the rest of your taxes. There is a cap on benefits, so there's a cap on what you contribute to it, not unlike the cap on contributions to a 401(k) or IRA.

Of course, we never got our lockbox so the upcoming generation of retirees elected governments that spent that retirement money on other stuff now wants to raise taxes so that the current young folks can pay for their irresponsibility.

SS is 12.4% and it stops at ~120k / year.

Ah, that makes sense. Is that 120k/year for couples or just singles?

The cap is per person. However, payouts increase by 50% for married couples where only one person worked. This is then cut in half if the spouse who worked dies. If the non working spouse dies then the worker is left with their normal benefit.

Edit: Each benefit is considered independently, so if you both made the same amount then there is no increase in maximum payout, however you can take the spouses lower benefit early (62) and put off using your benefit till (67) which would increase your total payout assuming you lived to 85.

PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Wage_Base

Ops, looks like they did not raise the cap so it's $106,800 in 2010.

Funny how that works eh. Yet all we hear is whining about "soak the rich" etc.

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