While it was gratifying to see President Biden sign the Social Security Fairness Act, bringing an end to the Windfall Elimination Provision, an unfair provision still remains — the limitation on earned income subject to Social Security withholding ($176,100 as of 2025).

The “logic” is that Social Security is geared to assist lower-income persons and that the wealthy, with their assets, won’t need its benefits. What this misses is the fact that those who accumulate great wealth do so through the labor of many others.

The notion of the “self-made” person is nonsense. There is a social and moral obligation to repay the debt owed to the many whose lifelong efforts contributed to the disproportionate financial success of the few. A commensurate contribution to country’s mutual retirement fund, by all Americans, is only right. Social Security should be understood as a pillar of our country’s social contract.

Joe Wagner
Lyman