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The top 5% own MORE than 40% of this country's wealth, private non-home real estate, wealth assets and income....so really, 40% is a bargain when you get down to it.
The top 5% own MORE than 40% of this country's wealth, private non-home real estate, wealth assets and income....so really, 40% is a bargain when you get down to it.
A more detailed picture of the distribution of wealth emerges from examining the share of total net worth held by various percentiles of the wealth distribution. As shown in Table 2, the top 1% of households accounted for a little more than one-third of total net worth in 2010. The next 9% of households (the 90th to 99th percentile) held two-fifths of all wealth. Taken together then, the top 10% of wealth-owning households accounted for a disproportionate share (74.5%) of total wealth. Inequality is the term commonly applied to the concentration of total net worth among the relatively few households at the top of the wealth distribution.
Net worth has become more concentrated in recent decades. (See Table 2.) The share of wealth held by the top 10% of wealth owners grew from 67.2% in 1989 to 74.5% in 2010. Declines occurred in the remaining 90% of households. The share of total net worth owned by households in the 50th to 90th percentile of the wealth distribution fell from 29.9% in 1989 to 24.3% in 2010, and the share of households in the bottom half fell from 3.0% to 1.1%.
50% of households only own 1% of the nations wealth -- and the GOP is mad that these people don't pay income taxes.
They pay income tax but the masses want them to pay down the national deficit so their programs won't get cut.
Even the rich can't be so stupid to think they'd continue to enjoy their current standard of living if this country goes the way of a banana republic? With walled enclaves of propserity surrounded by masses of poverty, disease and crime?
Plenty of examples in this world where that is the norm, and it's not a single placed I'D want to live. How about you?
They pay income tax but the masses want them to pay down the national deficit so their programs won't get cut.
Considering that the nation had a surplus for 4 years ending in 2001, when tax-rates were slashed, this doesn't sound like an outrageous idea.
The nation was able to pay off the enormous World War II debt, which adjusted for inflation was more than today's debt, by high rates on the rich. Considering that the riches 400 taxpayers, with an average income in 2009 of $202 million, had 1/4 paid less than 15 percent of their take in combined federal income and payroll taxes. Half of this crew paid less than 20 percent, and some actually paid nothing, this isn't so outlandish.
Thus, liberals would like the rich, who benefited the most from tax-cuts, to pay more while conservatives want to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. Viva the Sheriff of Nottingham!
I'd rather see spending stay within revenue. That's a bit different.
Spending staying with revenue is a horrible idea, because during recessions or during wars you wouldn't be able to fund either.
During recessions this nation has a bunch of income stabilizers, namely unemployment checks, food stamps that people lean on when they lose their job, so they don't lose everything.
So during a recession by definition tax revenues decrease while government spending increases. Matching revenues to spending would be disastrous.
Think about wars, the US would immediately have to ramp up taxes to pay for wars. This can be a good idea in general. I think shared sacrifice when sending Americans to war makes sense, but no nation ever "pays" for a war completely with tax revenues so increasing taxes to meet demand, might destroy the economy.
Think about wars, the US would immediately have to ramp up taxes to pay for wars. This can be a good idea in general. I think shared sacrifice when sending Americans to war makes sense, but no nation ever "pays" for a war completely with tax revenues so increasing taxes to meet demand, might destroy the economy.
Or, in this country, a war crafted and conceived by Republicans coincides with tax cuts.... so that nobody actually has to SACRIFICE anything for the funding of the war.
We get a WAR and get to keep our SUVs!
And then we wonder why we're up to our eyeballs in unfunded debt?
It is amazing how conservatives come up with these angry posts about how unfair it is that the top 5% pays x% of the income taxes.
This is actually an indication of the huge income gains the top 5% have made relative to everyone else.
So this is why they pay so much because they make so much of the income. It is like they believe there is some kind of conspiracy to punish these people when in reality, every President for the last 100years has proposed a progressive income tax.
None have said lets change it. Every President for the last 100 years has affirmed the idea that those who make more should pay a higher percentage.
Or, in this country, a war crafted and conceived by Republicans coincides with tax cuts.... so that nobody actually has to SACRIFICE anything for the funding of the war.
We get a WAR and get to keep our SUVs!
And then we wonder why we're up to our eyeballs in unfunded debt?
Yes, the blindness of conservatives who were all for the war in Iraq which has cost 100's of billions with the tax cuts and the recession, in not connecting those things to our budget deficits is truly astonishing.
They have disappeared their culpability in greatly adding to the debt, by pursuing their policies.
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