Sandy Harris wrote:
>
>
> There are limits on the power to tax, especially if they want to be
> re-elected. Yes, you can milk the rich some more, but they have
> options like moving offshore, and they have political influence
> which leads to hand-outs rather than milking.
>
This distorts badly.
The state, as the state, clearly has such power. Whether a given government _chooses_ to use it or not is another question, and needs to be kept separate. The fraud here is claiming that providing for the elderly (a reather old human habit actually) depends on the existence of a marked fund for that purpose, which it clearly does not.
It is a political problem, not a technical economic problem. Keep them separate.
Carrol