As the payroll wages of the "bottom 90%" continue to lag behind and the CHASM between them and the top 2% gets broader and deeper, the FICA TAXES ON THOSE PAYROLL WAGES also go down. This is the ol' "War On The Middle Class" ... but even that meme is misleading. It's a "war" on the working class - cheap labor - the commoditization of human beings.

If we want to kill two vampires with one silver bullet, raise the federal minimum wage to a LIVABLE WAGE!

It really shouldn't require a rocket scientist to look at the history of the federal minimum wage and see the starvation of Social Security. Every dollar increase in the federal minimum wage includes a $0.15 increase in Social Security revenues.



Now ... one of the best measures of the widening and deeping chasm between the "haves" and the "have-nots" is the Gini Ratio. As it increases, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Please NOTE the correlation between the minimum wage and the Gini Ratio.



If you take a look at the Wage Statistics for 2006 (latest available), you get a good idea how MANY workers are paid the LEAST and how FEW workers are paid the MOST.