The Poverty Line.

I have always considered myself to be one of "the rich", so imagine my surprise to find that we are barely above the poverty line! My Soc Sec payment - we are retired - puts us well below the poverty line of $23,550. So at 72 years old I still work to put us just above the poverty line.
There are people - like bankers, wall streeters, politicians and many others - who make MILLIONS of dollars a year and pay a LOWER tax rate than I do, and I am am barely above the poverty line!!!!
For example Mitt Romney who has an income of around $25 MILLION a year pays a tax rate of 12%, whereas the average American pays 30% of his income in taxes!!
Take Soc Sec taxes, you and I pay 6.3% of our income in Soc Sec taxes, but Mitt Romney pays .0002% of his income in Soc Sec taxes. If we all paid Soc Sec taxes at 6.3% of our income - why should you and I pay that but not the rich? - then not only would Soc Sec be secure forever but the rate could easily be dropped to 4% or even 3% for everyone. makes sense to me. And you know what I would not mind betting that people making hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars would have no problem at all paying taxes at the same rate as the rest of us. Am I right? No I didn't so :)