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bushwhack227 t1_j6ffnlz wrote

>roughly the bottom 50% of income earners pay no federal taxes at all.

No federal income tax. They absolutely do pay Medicare and FICA

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drxdrg08 t1_j6fgnsl wrote

They do. And state and local taxes, which are less progressive. But the major difference between federal income taxes and Medicare/FICA taxes is that they are generally paid back when someone retires.

It's more of a mandatory government savings plan than a tax that goes who knows where.

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bushwhack227 t1_j6fok9w wrote

>they are generally paid back when someone retires.

That depends how long you live. Wealthier people benefit much more from those puritans because they tend to live longer.

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drxdrg08 t1_j6g5zek wrote

That's not true. Social Security is a re-distributive system.

Lower income people get more benefit out of it than they paid into it. In other words, the system skews payments towards the lower end at the expense of the upper end.

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