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Liberals love to talk about how the rich don't pay "their fair share" in taxes. They use anecdotal evidence and point out individual cases where wealthy individuals use creative loopholes to pay much less than they should -- ignoring the fact that there are cheats and schemers in every tax bracket. From the way some people talk, one would think that America's entire tax burden is shouldered by the poor and middle-class, while the rich get off scot-free.
But who really pays what? Here are some cold, hard numbers from last year to digest:
- The richest 1% of Americans paid a staggering 37% of the federal income taxes, despite bringing in only 19% of the income. By my math, they paid DOUBLE "their fair share."
- The richest 5% of individuals paid 57% of the taxes, despite bringing only 33% of the income. Once again... almost double "their fair share."
- The top 25% of individuals paid 85% of the taxes while making 66% of the income. Still much more than "their fair share."
- How about the bottom 50%... you know, the ones who complain the loudest? They made 13% of the income but paid only 3 percent of the taxes.
Those are the collective numbers, which tell the story a whole lot more accurately than assorted anecdotes about some billionaire who figured out a way to not pay taxes. As a whole, billionaires DO pay taxes... and plenty of them.
In conclusion, there are plenty of Americans who aren't paying "their fair share"... but it isn't the group we've all been led to believe it is!
Liberals love to talk about how the rich don't pay "their fair share" in taxes. They use anecdotal evidence and point out individual cases where wealthy individuals use creative loopholes to pay much less than they should -- ignoring the fact that there are cheats and schemers in every tax bracket. From the way some people talk, one would think that America's entire tax burden is shouldered by the poor and middle-class, while the rich get off scot-free.
But who really pays what? Here are some cold, hard numbers from last year to digest:
- The richest 1% of Americans paid a staggering 37% of the federal income taxes, despite bringing in only 19% of the income. By my math, they paid DOUBLE "their fair share."
- The richest 5% of individuals paid 57% of the taxes, despite bringing only 33% of the income. Once again... almost double "their fair share."
- The top 25% of individuals paid 85% of the taxes while making 66% of the income. Still much more than "their fair share."
- How about the bottom 50%... you know, the ones who complain the loudest? They made 13% of the income but paid only 3 percent of the taxes.
Those are the collective numbers, which tell the story a whole lot more accurately than assorted anecdotes about some billionaire who figured out a way to not pay taxes. As a whole, billionaires DO pay taxes... and plenty of them.
In conclusion, there are plenty of Americans who aren't paying "their fair share"... but it isn't the group we've all been led to believe it is!
As the Center on Economic and Policy Research's Dean Baker reminds us, the U.S. economic policies of the last three decades, by favoring corporations and the wealthy over average Americans, have achieved the world's most breathtaking upward redistribution of wealth. America's richest 1 percent are getting about $1.5 trillion richer each year. Studies also show that the top 5 percent in this country hold almost 64 percent of our wealth while and the bottom 80 percent of scrape by on just 12.8 percent of the pie.
Outside of Washington people have a different conception of bravery. After all, over the last three decades the policies crafted in Washington have led to the most massive upward redistribution in the history of the world. The richest 1 percent of the population has seen its share of national income increase by close to 10 percentage points. This comes to $1.5 trillion a year, or as Representative Ryan might say, $90 trillion over the next 75 years. That’s almost $300,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. This upward redistribution creates the real possibility that many of our children will be poorer than we are. If Representative Ryan and his followers really cared about future generations then we might expect him to push for policies that reverse some of this upward redistribution.
For example, we could break up the large banks (e.g. Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan) that operate with implicit government protection. This allows them to borrow money at below market interest rates and undercut their smaller competitors. By my calculationsthe size of this subsidy to the largest banks is close to $35 billion a year, almost half the size of the long-term Social Security shortfall that concerns Mr. Ryan so much. If Mr. Ryan could man up a little maybe he would have the courage to tell the big Wall Street banks that they will have to compete in a free market without this subsidy from the government.
It’s not only the big banks that make Representative Ryan cower. He’s also scared of the pharmaceutical industry. As a result of government enforced patent monopolies we spend close to $300 billion a year on drugs that would cost us around $30 billion a year. The potential savings of $270 billion a year is about three times the size of the projected Social Security shortfall.
When the top 5% owns nearly 2/3 of the wealth in a country it's hard for rest to pay their "fair share." The top 20% owns 88% of the wealth. So the bottom 80% that you despise so much is left with the crumbs that fall of the table. It's easier to take a leg of lamb from a king with a bountiful feast than it is to squeeze a few crumbs from someone holding a piece stale bread. You want the poor to make more, but they have nothing to give. Even if you squeezed every last penny from bottom 80% you'd get virtually nothing.
Why do people start threads by cutting and pasting someone elses research without providing a link to that research?
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