You’re living the American Dream. You’ve put in the hard work necessary to reach a higher economic class, and now you get to be the target of nonsensical, politically-driven gaslighting for being too “rich”.

 

While we're on the topic of social security, I recently discovered a neat little mouse trap in the system that benefits the government but not the payer.

Say you're an airline employee with two jobs, like a military job. Say your airline job pays you about $250K. Delta pays the government 6.2% up to $176,100 and I pay 6.2% up to $176,100. Once you pay that amount, well, you stop paying those payroll taxes.

Now, let's say you have a second employer who pays you about 70K. Again, 6.2% from each employer and employee. At the end of the year, you get credit towards your federal income taxes in the amount you "overpaid" SS's income cap of $176,100 (yay!, right?). Employer number one stopped paying at $176,100. So what about that 6.2% from your second employer? Whelp, the government keeps it. And you get no additional increase in benefits from your labor's contribution to Social Security.

That extra 6.2% I produced with my labor is given directly to the government. I get no credit, and no added SS benefit. Cool beans.

So in effect, this year (2025), my labor produced $21,836.40 + $5,642 = $27,478.40 in direct contributions to the Social Security scheme. One of the many hidden ways in which our tax code functions. That figure approaches 10% of every dollar I made. Before federal and state income taxes. Before local sales taxes. Before property taxes. Before all of it. 10%.

 

And you should get none of those benefits back because you're a rich airline pilot with no perspective who doesn't deserve the "government handout" that is social security. Don't forget to read this book about your white privilege.

(those are Joe Blow's exact words).

 

Socialist talking point:

Why should you get to stop paying ss at all? I have to pay it on my entire paycheck.

 

Ummm...no? Schedule 3, line 11, which carries over to 1040 line 31. That's a refundable credit, not an itemized deduction. Which means you get it back in the form of either a reduction in your taxes or even a refund if the math works out that way.

Also, why are you including your employer's contribution in your math? Unless you're self-employed (which many pilots with side hustles are), that's somebody else's problem.

Now that's straight SS, not medicare, which has no cap and you'd fall into the additional 0.9% bracket. But that's a different thing.

 

This is not accurate. 401(a) money is NOT a separate account. It's a particular "bucket" of money within your 401(k). its not a "separate account" that you need to go set up. Fidelity refers to these buckets as "sources" within your 401(k).

Also, there are a few different types of "in plan conversions": Converting employee pre-tax money, company pre-tax money and employee post-tax money. Converting any pre-tax money to Roth within the 401(k) is taxable event, so be careful. When converting post tax money (401(a) bucket) to Roth either within the 401(k) or rolling over to a Roth IRA (AKA Mega-Backdoor Roth), any gains on the funds are taxable. For this reason, I direct all my employee money to 401(a) and into the Stable Value Fund. With that fund there are virtually no gains, so no tax when I roll it over to Roth IRA. After the rollover, move the money to aggressive funds for non-taxable gains.

 

No you don't....you stop contributing to SS after approx $176k of taxable income (2025 numbers)

 

A fun exercise is to log onto the Social Security benefits website and look at your annual contributions over a lifetime.

Multiply that by 2 (employer pays an equal amount into Social Security).

Ask yourself if you could have done something, anything better with that pool of cash over the years.

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(Side note: maximum SS tax for 2026 is $11,439 x 2 = $22,878 for those of us making over $180k ish this year)

Personally, I just see it as yet another tax I'll never get any benefit from. Thank god Congress hasn't removed the cap on the taxable wage base.

(For now. Although it would "fix" Social Security for awhile)

 

he’s implying most socialists don’t earn more than $176k/yr because they majored in worthless fields that have no potential for higher income.

 

You've got to be kidding me. That's like Michelle Obama lecturing a poor white kid who grew up in a trailer that he has more "privelge," than her daughters.