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Agreed. I paid some $28,000.00 in Federal income tax last year (joint filing) on total income of some $140,000.00. Hence, a statement that the 'rich' pay 'all the taxes' is false (as any thinking person would realize).
Believe it or not, that piddly amount DOES put you in the top 10%!!!
One thing that consistently amazes me is how much of the top 5% of this country chooses to hang out on City-Data. All that hard work seems to leave plenty of time.
I think professional performers and creators (athletes, musicians, authors, etc) provide excellent examples of how I think life works:
An extraordinary effort in the early years ('paying ones dues') initially yields uncertain and often minimal returns, which can grow to supersized returns once a consistent track record is esttablished. Stephen King spent the better part of a decade selling short stories to magazines for chump change before his work gained traction and he got million-dollar advances for each forthcoming book. Rookie players in major leagues start at the league minimum salary while overproducing for the first few years, then they can get humungous multi-year contracts while underperforming in their declining last years. For most of us, that means that early success can generate the financial base which allows you work fewer hours down the road.
Federal income tax is not the only tax people pay.
According to these numbers the top 1% pays about 21.6% of all taxes and makes about 20% of all income. That's not exactly "soaking the rich."
It is when the rich get the least amount of transfers, services and benefits from the government.
From the Chairman of the Economics Department at Harvard University:..
Quote:
"Because transfer payments are, in effect, the opposite of taxes, it makes sense to look not just at taxes paid, but at taxes paid minus transfers received. For 2009, the most recent year available, here are taxes less transfers as a percentage of market income (income that households earned from their work and savings):
Bottom quintile: -301 percent
Second quintile: -42 percent
Middle quintile: -5 percent
Fourth quintile: 10 percent Highest quintile: 22 percent Top one percent: 28 percent
The negative 301 percent means that a typical family in the bottom quintile receives about $3 in transfer payments for every dollar earned.
The most surprising fact to me was that the effective tax rate is negative for the middle quintile. According to the CBO data, this number was +14 percent in 1979 (when the data begin) and remained positive through 2007. It was negative 0.5 percent in 2008, and negative 5 percent in 2009. That is, the middle class, having long been a net contributor to the funding of government, is now a net recipient of government largess."
60% are TAKING substantially more than they contribute, making them a net drain on society. The 4th highest quintile are moderate contributors. But the top 20% is the demographic that's largely funding the federal government and all of its programs, and the top 1% even more so.
Many of you need to understand that under such a tax and government services and benefits structure, a very strong incentive exists for the government to promote as wide of an income gap as possible.
One thing that consistently amazes me is how much of the top 5% of this country chooses to hang out on City-Data. All that hard work seems to leave plenty of time.
I have noticed the same thing! It's simply amazing!
Quote:
Originally Posted by petch751
Yea, we have a choice, take a pay cut and have more time or fire people and work full time
Perhaps you could spend a bit less time on CD and more on running that . . business of yours.
60% are TAKING substantially more than they contribute, making them a net drain on society. The 4th highest quintile are moderate contributors. But the top 20% is the demographic that's largely funding the federal government and all of its programs, and the top 1% even more so.
That's only using federal tax data. Not state and local (property tax, sales tax, gas tax, license plates, etc.).
In many things, the rich get the most benefit from government services and/or take up their resources the most. Corporate welfare, tax breaks, subsidies, credits, deductions, loopholes, disaster relief funds, bailouts, business loans and grants, inspectors and regulators, government-funded research (the internet, university research, technology from the space program, etc.), licensing rules that allow the AMA to keep doctors' salaries high, police and military protection of their assets, intellectual property laws and courts, etc.
As far as the transfer payments to the poor go, you can thank conservative demigod Ronald Reagan for that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by InformedConsent
Many of you need to understand that under such a tax and government services and benefits structure, a very strong incentive exists for the government to promote as wide of an income gap as possible.
Your assertion that government is intentionally trying to widen income inequality so that they can collect more taxes is tinfoil hat territory and has nothing to support it.
In many things, the rich get the most benefit from government services and/or take up their resources the most.
How so?
Quote:
Corporate welfare, tax breaks, subsidies, credits, deductions, loopholes, disaster relief funds, bailouts, business loans and grants, inspectors and regulators, government-funded research (the internet, university research, technology from the space program, etc.), licensing rules that allow the AMA to keep doctors' salaries high, police and military protection of their assets, intellectual property laws and courts, etc.
Stop them. Then watch what happens to product/service prices. Are you unfamiliar with the Economy 101 concept of the end user always pays?
How so? Stop them. Then watch what happens to product/service prices. Are you unfamiliar with the Economy 101 concept of the end user always pays?
We were talking about who pays what and who gets what. Not whether any particular policy should or shouldn't be stopped. Nice deflection.
Not to mention, that doesn't even make sense for half the things I listed.
Stop having police and a military? Ok...
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