Ahhhhh.... all the purists come out of the woodwork. :)
I thought $200,000 was pretty generous, frankly. I was expecting about $150,000.
As far as addressing the issue of social security, I think this is a very good start. Knocking down the incentives to save makes saving all the more economical to spending. And really, once you get much beyond the daily costs of living, it becomes far easier to save.
The Citizens for Tax Justice guy was complaining that this didn’t help out the average American enough because he “only” makes $43,000, and this goes to $200k. I managed to put back some money when I was making far less than average.
The point is to encourage Americans to save and to wean them from government dependence. I think this would be a huge step in the right direction. And as someone a few years away from embarking on a professional career, this sounds pretty nice about now.
That may be the “point” but the result is to make the tax code even more progressive than it already is — and it is damn progressive with the lowest 50% of income earners paying just less than 4% of the taxes — and to make the code even more convoluted than it already is, to favor certain favored Americans at the expense of others.
I expect that I’m a lot older than you are and I’ve made my money, lots and lots of it - so, it really doesn’t matter a lot to me from a financial perspective, I can afford it. But, I don’t remember a single time where I was in the favored income group at the right time to get special benefits at the expense of my fellow citizens. In fact, I can remember getting shot at for about 15 cents/hour for two years and having the Government withhold Social Security from the pittance they were paying me to fight.
I think that I’ll vote for Ron Paul.