Answers to Questions that Nobody Asked Me

Here are some questions that nobody asked me but that I answered anyway to give people some things to think about.
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Q: If one million people earn $100 less one year than the previous year, and one person earns $300,000,000 more, how much did the mean average income change over the year?

A: Income increased by $200 on the mean average.

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Q: If we were to nationalize the payment system for medical care, would we necessarily need to nationalize the entire medical care system?

A: Of course not. That's a silly notion. Nationalizing only the payment system would most likely create opportunities for both medical professionals and consumers because small clinics could open up where services are now not available with confidence that they will be paid if they treat someone.
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Q: If Social Security taxes are capped when someone earns $150,000, at what time will someone who earns $1,000,000 per day cap out their liability presuming the person starts work at 9 a.m. and works for 8 hours?

A: That works out to $125,000 per hour, which means they will cap out at 10:12 a.m. on the first day of the year, just in time for the morning coffee break.
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Q: If social security and Medicare taxes are paid by wage deductions that are then matched by the employer, aren't they truly employment taxes?

A: Yes. The current formula results in the employee getting 7.65% less than what they earn while costing the employer 7.65% more than what they pay the employee. The exceptions are those who are self-employed. They must pay the entire 15.3% on their earnings. Those to whom the business owner pays interest and dividends do not pay those taxes on that income, but bonuses paid to employees is subject to the tax.
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Q: What would happen if we were to tax all income rather than just wages earned and wages paid so that they aren't employment taxes?

A: It would simplify the accounting for businesses while also reducing the operating costs. It would also reduce the tax rates necessary to fund both social security and Medicare because most of the income earned in the US is not earned by people making less than $150,000 a year in wages.

If I were to run a test model to determine a break-even point, I would replace the 15.3% of the first $150,000 in wages with 2% of all income for my first try expecting that I would be close, and I would adjust the rate from those results because I would almost certainly be off by some amount.

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