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these upper middle class people (we) are the work horses of the tax system, right? Not rich enough to stop working, too rich for sympathy.
by TheCondor 9y ago
these upper middle class people (we) are the work horses of the tax system, right? Not rich enough to stop working, too rich for sympathy.
- namarie 9y agoAnd sympathy clearly makes up for the poorest 20% of the country, right?
- harryh 9y agoNo, not really. The top 1% pay nearly half the income taxes.
- JoeAltmaier 9y ago(...and take in 99% of the income. Why not 99% of the income tax? Clearly at 50%, the system is massively out of balance in their favor.)
- harryh 9y agoThat is incorrect. The top 1% earn about 20% of the income in the US. They pay about 40% of the income taxes (I went and looked this up after your comment. "Nearly half" was perhaps slightly overstating the case). Given that we have a progressive tax system it makes intuitive sense that the higher percentiles (1%, 5%, 10%, whatever) will always pay a greater percentage of total income tax than they make in total income.
- JoeAltmaier 9y agoAh! I was wrong; I was thinking 'net worth' not income. And the net worth of the top 1% is around 35% of the total national wealth. (Which is curiously close to the income tax number of 40%)
- harryh 9y agoAh, yes. Stock vs flow! I noticed that curiosity as well. Not sure it means anything in particular but it was interesting.