RE: Values

[Walter Hart <tracy.hart@cwix.com>]

Social Security payroll taxes should not be so expensive to the
poor and middle class that it effectively petrifies an existing
class structure.  The American Dream has always been of a country
where even the lowliest, poorest person could rise to become ...
any thing his heart and spirit could dream.  Stealing away the
first 15% (and more in the future) of wage earnings effectively
trades the American Dream for the mediocrity of Social Security
"security."

Social Security began at 2% of payroll.  Now Social Security takes
12.4%, and Medicare Hospital Insurance takes an additional 2.9%.
The numerous increases in tax rates and wages subject to the tax
is a function of the fact that Social Security is a wealth transfer
system rather than a wealth creation system.  The goal of providing
a floor of income to the needy elderly is sound, but we need to
change the mechanism for funding this protection.

We must both protect the elderly from poverty-ridden old age and
preserve the very essence of the American Dream, the possibility
that even those who come into the world with nothing can, through
their hard work, determination, and inspiration, succeed at what
they set out to do.  As Social Security exists today - and into
the foreseeable future - we are guaranteeing a solidification of
the existing class structure.

Walter Hart