The Ledger · Interactive
The Fair System
Reality Checker
Type in what you make. This page shows — in your own dollars — how the current system favors wealth over work in every arena of your life: your paycheck, your taxes, your savings, your healthcare, your kids, your retirement. Every figure is sourced. Every claim is stated exactly. This is what we're fighting for.
By Orion Quinn · Figures as of FY 2025–26
§ 01 — Your numbers
Start with what you make
§ 02 — The reality check
How the system treats your money
Arena 01 / The PaycheckThe fight: pay that tracks the work
What you should be making
From 1948 to the late 1970s, pay rose with productivity. Then they split: since 1979, net productivity has grown 59.7% while a typical worker's compensation grew just 15.8%. Apply that documented gap to your wage:
— a year missing — —/month in take-home terms
Take-home, tracking productivity
—
The exact claim: wages stopped tracking productivity. This is the measured gap for the typical worker, not a claim that one person took precisely this from your check. Source: Economic Policy Institute, 1979–2019.
Arena 02 / TaxesThe fight: tax wealth like work
The wage-work penalty
Your income is taxed as wages: ordinary brackets plus payroll tax. The same dollars, earned by selling stock instead of working, would face the capital-gains schedule — and no payroll tax at all.
— a year extra, because you work for your money
Your income taxed as wages
—
Taxed like capital gains
—
The exact claim: simplified single-filer federal estimate (standard deduction, federal income + 7.65% payroll vs. the 2025 long-term capital-gains schedule). Billionaires average roughly 8% on their real income, per White House / Treasury estimates.
Arena 03 / SavingsThe fight: equal help for equal effort
The government pays the rich more to save
A 401(k) deduction is worth your marginal tax rate. Put away the same $5,000 as a top-bracket earner, and the tax code hands them a contribution up to three times yours — for identical behavior.
— less back per $5,000 you save
Your deduction is worth
—
A top-bracket earner gets
$1,850
The exact claim: pure bracket arithmetic — the deduction's value equals the saver's marginal rate (2025 brackets). Shown per $5,000 saved; not added to your annual total below.
Arena 04 / HealthcareThe fight: care priced like peer nations
What the system overcharges you
In 2024 the United States spent about $14,885 per person on healthcare. Wealthy peer nations — which cover everyone — averaged $7,371. The difference is mostly prices, not more care. Prescription drug overpricing is included in these totals.
— a year above peer-nation cost
Your household, US prices
—
Same household, peer prices
—
The exact claim: per-person system cost vs. the peer-nation average (Australia, Germany, France, UK, etc.), at your household size. — already leaves your paycheck in premiums before any care. Sources: Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker 2024; KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey 2025.
Arena 05 / PricesThe fight: no hidden taxes on working families
The tariff bill at the register
Tariffs are a sales tax collected through prices. Yale's Budget Lab puts the current cost at roughly $760–$940 per household per year — and as a share of income, the burden on the poorest tenth runs about three times that on the richest tenth.
$850 a year in higher prices, average household
The exact claim: The Budget Lab at Yale, April 2026 (current regime, midpoint of $760–$940 range; we use $850 in your ledger). A tax that gets lighter the richer you are.
Arena 06 / ChildcareThe fight: care capped at what families can pay
Childcare past the government's own line
The average price of care is $13,184 per child per year. The federal government's own affordability standard says childcare should cost no more than 7% of household income. On your numbers:
— a year beyond the affordability standard
The exact claim: Child Care Aware of America 2025 national average price; HHS 7%-of-income affordability benchmark.
Arena 07 / CollegeThe fight: public education that's actually public
Your kid's degree
In-state tuition and fees at a public four-year university now run $11,950 a year — about $47,800 per degree. Germany and the Nordic countries charge their students little or nothing for the same public education.
$47,800 per four-year public degree, tuition and fees
The exact claim: College Board, Trends in College Pricing 2025–26 (published in-state tuition & fees; living costs additional). Counted per degree, not in your annual total.
Arena 08 / Student DebtThe fight: degrees that don't mortgage a decade
Paying for a degree peer nations give freely
The average federal student loan balance just hit a record $39,633. The typical payment runs about $300 a month — a bill that simply doesn't exist for graduates in much of the wealthy world.
$3,600 a year at the typical payment
The exact claim: US Dept. of Education average federal balance (Dec 2025); Federal Reserve typical payment range ($200–$299, ~$300 on the standard plan).
Arena 09 / Paid LeaveThe fight: time for life's biggest moments
A new baby, on your dime
The United States is the only wealthy nation with no national paid family leave. Federal law guarantees only unpaid time off. Take the 12 weeks the law allows, and on your wage you forfeit:
— in lost pay per 12-week unpaid leave
The exact claim: FMLA provides unpaid leave only; OECD family database — every other wealthy nation mandates paid leave. Counted per event, not in your annual total.
Arena 10 / RetirementThe fight: every dollar pays in, every check stays whole
The Social Security check you've already earned
On your wage, your estimated benefit at full retirement age is about — a month. But the retirement trust fund is projected to run short around 2033 — as early as 2032 — and if Congress does nothing, every check is cut roughly 23% automatically.
—/month off your check — — a year
After the do-nothing cut
—
You pay Social Security tax on every dollar you earn. Earnings above $176,100 pay nothing — someone making $2 million is done contributing on February 1st. Lifting that cap closes much of the shortfall, though after decades of delay, no longer all of it.
The exact claim: 2025 Social Security Trustees Report (OASI depletion 2033, ~77% payable); SSA chief actuary projects 2032 under current law. Benefit estimated with 2025 bend points, assuming current wage ≈ career average, claimed at full retirement age.
The inheritance reality check
You pay tax from your first dollar of wages. An heir can receive $15 million tax-free — $30 million for a couple — and the capital gains built up over the giver's lifetime are erased entirely at death ("stepped-up basis"). Wealth passes untaxed. Work never does.
Your ledger — annual dollars at stake
Total per year, across every fight
—
Honest accounting: these lines live in different parts of your life — pay stub, premiums, store prices, daycare bill, loan statement, retirement check — and some arrive in different decades. They're listed side by side, not claimed as one check you're owed. Per-event, per-degree, and per-$5,000 figures appear in their sections but are excluded from this total. Every line is sourced below.
Sources & the honest fine print
- Paycheck: Economic Policy Institute — net productivity +59.7% vs. typical worker compensation +15.8%, 1979–2019; we apply the resulting ~1.38× ratio. Economists (e.g., Stansbury & Summers) debate causes and measurement; we state the gap, not a single cause.
- Taxes: 2025 IRS brackets, single filer, standard deduction, federal income + 7.65% payroll vs. the long-term capital-gains schedule (0/15/20%). State taxes and credits excluded; illustrative. Billionaire ~8% figure: White House / U.S. Treasury estimate.
- Savings subsidy: deduction value = marginal rate × contribution; 2025 brackets. Top rate 37%.
- Healthcare: Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker — 2024 US spending $14,885/person vs. $7,371 peer average; prices, not utilization, drive most of the gap. Household = 1 (just me) or 4 (family). Premiums: KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey ($1,440 single / $6,850 family worker share).
- Tariffs: The Budget Lab at Yale, April 2026 — $760–$940 per average household per year under the current regime ($850 midpoint used); bottom-decile burden ~3× top decile as share of income.
- Childcare: Child Care Aware of America 2025 — $13,184 national average price per child; HHS 7%-of-income affordability standard.
- College: College Board, Trends in College Pricing 2025–26 — $11,950 average published in-state tuition & fees, public four-year.
- Student debt: US Dept. of Education — average federal balance $39,633 (Dec 2025); Federal Reserve — typical payment $200–$299/month (~$300 standard plan).
- Paid leave: FMLA (unpaid only); OECD family database — the US is the only wealthy nation without national paid leave.
- Social Security: 2025 Trustees Report — OASI depletion 2033, ~77% of benefits payable (≈23% cut); SSA chief actuary: 2032 under current law. 2025 bend points ($1,226/$7,391); payroll cap $176,100. Per CRFB, lifting the cap alone no longer restores full 75-year solvency — it closes much of the gap.
- Inheritance: federal estate & gift tax exemption $15 million per person from 2026 ($30M/couple); stepped-up basis under IRC §1014.
- What we do not claim: that these sum into one payment you're owed; that any single reform delivers every line; or that any gap has a single cause. Each arena is its own documented fight.
◆ Dangerous Thoughts ◆
Civic journalism in the tradition of Mike Quin (1906–1947)
All contemporary writing bylined Orion Quinn