Martin_Straub:

Obama's plan is to increase taxes to bail out Social Security, which, of course, is in a chronic state of crisis. He's really saying that capitalism is a failure, and that we need to turn to socialism. This statement is somewhat self-contradictory, since a failure of capitalism would deprive socialism of the tax base it needs in order to survive.

I haven't followed the latest twists in campaign proposals, but I assume you're referring to Obama's proposal to eliminate the SS tax cap at around $102,000 of income. I was forwarded an interesting blog post about what the actual consequences would be to a NYC resident earning more than that. The post has links to an excel file intended to allow individuals to calculate what the actual financial impact will be to supporting this proposal. I'm a fan of saving social security but the calculation looks a lot higher than I would ever get back when I qualify for payments.

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Of course, there are arguments that paying this is in the interest of living in a society that is safe and more stable even if the money doesn't come back. (Reduces risk of marauding bands of seniors, etc.) I eagerly welcome anyone to assure me that this is wrong.