The reason the articles focus on families ranging from the median up is because the vast majority of people below the median income don't pay federal income tax

The reason the articles focus on families ranging from the median up is because the vast majority of people below the median income don't pay federal income taxes. [1] The bottom 40% actually have a negative effective federal tax rate. So going from 0% to 0% isn't exactly informative. The title of this submission (originally Please Don't Show Us Another “Typical Family Earning $270,000 a Year” in case it is changed) is misleading. The $270k number references another article [2] that looks at a wide array of different possible income groups. The lowest it goes is a married couple with one child earning $40k as their effective rate goes from 1.29% to -1%. Nowhere is it ever stated or even implied that $270k is a typical family. [1] - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/45-of-americans-pay-no-federal-income-tax-2016-02-24 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/45-of-americans-pay-no-fed... [2] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-22/trump-signs-1-5-trillion-tax-cut-in-first-major-legislative-win https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-22/trump-sig...