Nothing made my kids more libertarian than seeing how many taxes were taken out of their first paycheck.
- Federal Income Tax (20%)
- State Income Tax (Idaho, 7%)
- Social Security Tax (6.2%)
- Medicare Tax (1.45%)
That’s 34.65% off the top straight to the government. They had to work full time until 19 April 2018 last year to reach Tax Freedom Day.
BTW, when Social Security began in 1937, you paid a max of 1% of the first $3,000 of you income ($300). That’s where it topped out.
In today’s dollars, that would be 1% for the first $53,000 you made ($5,300 max).
Today, the SSA rate is 12.4% (6.2% paid by the employee; 6.2% paid by the employer.
How many people feel that over 1/3 of their income is being used wisely by the government?