Automation Must Pay Up” — The Fix for a System No One Wants to Touch

 

Social Security was never meant to be a savings account. It’s a pay-as-you-go system. That means today’s workers fund today’s retirees—not from a pile of money with their name on it, but from payroll taxes deducted in real time.

And that only works if people are working.

For decades, we made it work because the labor force was strong. But something changed—and we’re still pretending it didn’t.

Today, benefits are paid in today’s dollars—not what someone paid in.

So when the system has fewer workers paying in and more retirees drawing out, the math stops working.

Let me lay it out:

1. Baby Boomers are retiring fast
2. Fewer young people are entering the workforce
3. Automation is replacing jobs at scale
We outsourced entire industries overseas

That last one gets ignored in the news cycle, but NAFTA, CAFTA, and the offshoring movement gutted the American manufacturing base and stripped millions of payroll contributors from the system.

Now add in robots, AI, and automation replacing retail clerks, cashiers, warehouse workers, and even administrative roles—jobs that once paid into Social Security—and the problem compounds.

Here’s the truth:

No workers = No FICA tax = No benefits.

It’s captured in the above meme:

Morpheus (the voice of truth), sad Wojak (the displaced worker), and a cold, unfeeling checkout machine replacing a person. The message?

“Automation Must Pay Up.”

That’s my proposal. Simple. Clear. Fair.

If a machine or AI system replaces a worker, the company using it should pay what that worker would’ve paid in payroll taxes.

This isn’t about punishing innovation. It’s about saving a system that depends on labor force participation. You want automation? Fine. But don’t strip the foundation out from under Social Security and pretend it’ll just fix itself.

And here’s the part that frustrates me most:

No one in Washington is thinking beyond the next election—or the next 10,000 points on the Dow.

They kick the can. They pass the buck. And they smile for the cameras while the numbers collapse behind the curtain.

But this isn’t politics.

It’s not fearmongering.

It’s math.

And if we don’t address it, our kids and grandkids won’t see the benefits we were promised.

So I’ll say it again:

Automation must pay up.

If you’ve got a better solution, I’m all ears. But if you’re still pretending this system is fine—you’re part of the problem.