Tax Help Blog

Measured in dollars, self-funded retirees are wealthy. It takes real wealth to provide even a moderate income using conservative investments. As such, any tax plan that tries to soak the wealthy is likely to clobber retirees of even moderate income. Conversely, any tax system that allows people to save enough for retirement is likely to provide loopholes for the truly rich. Should we simply expand Social Security to provide a full retirement income even for those in the upper middle class in order to have a more progressive tax system? Or should we go the other way and encourage more people to save for their own retirements? If the latter, how do we protect wage earners from Wall St. vultures? Is independent retirement realistic for the lower classes? Can they handle the ups and downs of the market? Or will we always need Social Security or the equivalent? The answer is: yes, we can have a safe and stable private retirement system. And there are surprisingly liberal reasons for doing so. That said, much needs to be done about Wall St. first. But it is worth doing, because the current pay-as-you-go Social Security system threatens to bankrupt the nation, and it has already ripped of [...]