Economy

teachercd said:
I have been hearing "30 years" forever.  

What would your fix be?

I am not sure what the best route would be to fix it.
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I think under GWB they were talking about investing some of the SS plan in the stock market - of course that went no where out of fear of crashes like 2000 and later 2008 and of course recent crashes under covid.   However, over time the stock market continues to rise.  It seems to me there should be conservative (financial not political) investment options that could help fund the 'short fall' without cutting benefits.   No admin and no congress has had the courage to do an overhaul of SS funding.   I don't know - do they eventually go with the Medicare Advantage plan where 3rd party companies manage SS and the govt funds those 3rd parties to do so??   With this congress and president wanting to raise the debt by trillions more, I don't see any good answers on solving the funding problem. 

 
JJ Husker said:
Yep. Pretty tough to fairly tax unrealized gains. No guarantee it will ever be actually realized. I’m not against doing something to prevent the ability to shelter all that money but I don’t believe this is the way to go.
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Tax the stock at the current value the day they take possession as income. If they chose to sell or hold it's on them. If it gains or loses after that, not my damn problem. 

 
Born N Bled Red said:
Tax the stock at the current value the day they take possession as income. If they chose to sell or hold it's on them. If it gains or loses after that, not my damn problem. 
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I guess I assumed that was already happening (and I’m not sure it isn’t). When they talk about taxing unrealized gains, I figured that was just for the increase in value after acquiring the stock. So yeah, I see no reason for it to not be taxed when they originally receive it. Are you sure it isn’t because that’s kinda crazy?

 
Born N Bled Red said:
So it's cool to let the ultra wealthy cheat the system, harvest billions from our economy and hard working Americans by utilizing loopholes to prevent them from paying the same percentage of taxes as the rest of us? 
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Lighten up Francis. It's not cheating the system. Taxing unrealized gains is stupid for everyone. It doesn't make any sense, and there is no effective way to do it.

Born N Bled Red said:
Tax the stock at the current value the day they take possession as income.
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This is literally already done. You, me, Bezos, Elon, and Jamie Dimon all have to pay income tax on any stocks given to us as compensation.

Born N Bled Red said:
If they chose to sell or hold it's on them. If it gains or loses after that, not my damn problem. 
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Well, now you've just increased our deficit, because they wouldn't be paying capital gains on any gains after taking possession of the stock and selling it as they are required to right now.

What you're actually mad about is that the ultra wealthy have the ability to take extremely favorable loans out using their stocks as collateral. This effectively gives them an income without any taxation, and allows them to hold off on selling their stocks until they have a more favorable tax situation with deductions and write-offs to reduce their capital gains as much as possible.

And you're probably mad about their insane compensation levels.

 
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JJ Husker said:
I guess I assumed that was already happening (and I’m not sure it isn’t). When they talk about taxing unrealized gains, I figured that was just for the increase in value after acquiring the stock. So yeah, I see no reason for it to not be taxed when they originally receive it. Are you sure it isn’t because that’s kinda crazy?
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It is taxed as income, but as was established, only the first 176,000 faced social security taxes. 

 
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