Our country is having an increasingly important conversation about the impact of automation, particularly as artificial intelligence becomes even more powerful. Robots now regularly take jobs that were once done by humans. We also need to address the impact of automation on Social Security. Half of its funding comes from a tax on employer payroll. As employers replace humans with machines, their contributions drop, creating pressure on our system.
Should we consider changing the employer side of FICA to be based on US revenue, not payroll? This would ensure that every company that sold in the US also paid into Social Security. Every company benefits from being able to sell to Seniors and every company benefits from the demand stabilization, keeping recessions from becoming depressions. Every company should pay into the fund. It would be fairer, lessen the impact of automation, and lower the direct cost of hiring a US worker by several thousand dollars.
https://labortribune.com/opinion-change-employer-fica-to-support-u-s-employment/
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Submission Statement: Our economy is changing, with technology advancing in leaps and bounds. Often our systems of government and social organization don’t keep up. We need to continually evaluate how we are governing our society to ensure we are serving our population. The employer side of Social Security is an example of an approach to governing that is increasingly disconnected from our economy creates output. We need to have a conversation about how to adjust it to meet our evolving needs.
You would have to completely redesign how SS benefits are calculated, since they are based on a worker’s inflation-adjusted wages over a 35 year period. That runs a very real risk of our politicians using that opportunity to screw workers and non-workers alike.
So it would be tied to the economy? That seems pretty risky, given how we’ve been seeing the extent to which the economy can be manipulated.