ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
As far as SS goes... most americans that worked paid into it(along with their employer). It would not be reasonable to just take it away (regardless of their wealth).
I think this is at the heart of it. In a way, it's just semantics, but I do think it would make a difference if it was set up as strictly a welfare/safety-net program paid out of general taxes. But once you point out that certain $ went into it (and the more you made the more went in), people will expect to get something for it. Most of us get pretty worked up over perceived "un-fairness", it's human nature I guess, and this fans the flames.
The American way will be to tax income and ultimately to recapture it at the end (estate taxes). IOW... you can use it while you are alive... but in the end, ...
Maybe you guessed I disagree? Yep, they're dead, so screw their intentions of what happens after death. Throw their body in the compost pile, they won't know they aren't in the family burial plot. Take their car, their clothing - they can't use 'em now. We wouldn't want the rest of the family to dispose of any of that per the deceased wishes. They're dead, screw 'em, too late to hire a team of lawyers now. Stupid dead people.
edit/add: And if it were the "American Way", our Founding Fathers would have put it in the Constitution. Heck, they didn't even put income tax in there, or even hint at one group taking care of another.
Tax simplification and tax fairness are often at odds with each other. .
And tax complications and tax fairness are very often at odds with each other. Wow, there must be a jillion opportunities for tax simplification that have nothing to do with 'fairness', or would improve it - let's not let that stop us.
I'll go so far as to say even some of the worst problems may need to be phased in/out to be "fair". If you were able to take advantage of some odd tax law, yanking it from you could create a problem for you, and you were just following the rules (playing the game). But phasing it in over 5 years or so, could give time to adjust.
-ERD50