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> Near 50% of American pay zero federal tax. I was looking for the lucky duckies argument to rear its head. The Intercept has an article which does a great job

> Near 50% of American pay zero federal tax. I was looking for the lucky duckies argument to rear its head. The Intercept has an article which does a great job of eviscerating it[1] > ...when you take all U.S. taxes into account — federal income taxes, federal payroll taxes, federal corporate taxes, the federal estate tax, federal excise taxes, and the plethora of state and local taxes — the U.S. tax system is just mildly progressive. > If the U.S. tax system were perfectly flat, the share of taxes paid by each group of Americans above would be equal to their share of income. > Instead, the top 1 percent — with an average income of about $2 million — made 20.9 percent of America’s income, but paid 24.1 percent of America’s taxes. Few people will perceive this as a monstrous injustice. > Meanwhile, the middle 20 percent of Americans— with incomes between $41,000 and $66,000 per year — make 10.9 percent of America’s income and pay 9.4 percent of America’s taxes. The bottom 20 percent, making less than $23,000, make just 2.8 percent of America’s income and pay 2 percent of America’s taxes. That is, the “lucky duckies” of the right’s imagination who pay little to nothing in income taxes are still paying a significant portion of their income in taxes overall. [1] https://theintercept.com/2019/04/13/tax-day-taxes-statistics/ https://theintercept.com/2019/04/13/tax-day-taxes-statistics...

czbond 6y ago
I was referencing only federal income, which I clarified a bit. Thank you for doing the work of providing those break downs.
ls612 6y ago
Problem there is that it ignores transfer payments. So the people making 2.8% of the national income are really taking home more than that since they (collectively, not every individual receives all of these) are receiving snap, section 8, tanf, social security/SSI, Medicaid, etc. From a post transfer perspective, America’s tax system is firmly progressive, but less so than European countries. The other side of that is that in America you have the opportunity to do quite well for yourself if you aren’t in one of the aristocratic elite families. That isn’t really the case in many of these European social democracies. Not only is there a safety net below you, but there is also a net above you as well.
- mullingitover 6y ago
  > So the people making 2.8% of the national income are really taking home more than that since they (collectively, not every individual receives all of these) are receiving snap, section 8, tanf, social security/SSI, Medicaid, etc. It makes sense to look at these payments to the extreme low income brackets as insurance against revolution. People will put up with a lot of misery, but there comes a point where they start getting angry about it, and as a bonus they're well armed in the US.
- panopticon 6y ago
  > The other side of that is that in America you have the opportunity to do quite well for yourself if you aren’t in one of the aristocratic elite families. That isn’t really the case in many of these European social democracies. Not only is there a safety net below you, but there is also a net above you as well. Hasn't this been thoroughly debunked by economic mobility studies? The US regularly ranks below many European countries by this metric, and the nordic countries tend to dominate in this regard.
  - ls612 6y ago
    If you look at quintile based measurements sure. But there’s far less difference between the European quintiles than the American ones. So it’s a misleading measure

czbond 6y ago

I was referencing only federal income, which I clarified a bit. Thank you for doing the work of providing those break downs.

ls612 6y ago

Problem there is that it ignores transfer payments. So the people making 2.8% of the national income are really taking home more than that since they (collectively, not every individual receives all of these) are receiving snap, section 8, tanf, social security/SSI, Medicaid, etc. From a post transfer perspective, America’s tax system is firmly progressive, but less so than European countries. The other side of that is that in America you have the opportunity to do quite well for yourself if you aren’t in one of the aristocratic elite families. That isn’t really the case in many of these European social democracies. Not only is there a safety net below you, but there is also a net above you as well.

mullingitover 6y ago
> So the people making 2.8% of the national income are really taking home more than that since they (collectively, not every individual receives all of these) are receiving snap, section 8, tanf, social security/SSI, Medicaid, etc. It makes sense to look at these payments to the extreme low income brackets as insurance against revolution. People will put up with a lot of misery, but there comes a point where they start getting angry about it, and as a bonus they're well armed in the US.
panopticon 6y ago
> The other side of that is that in America you have the opportunity to do quite well for yourself if you aren’t in one of the aristocratic elite families. That isn’t really the case in many of these European social democracies. Not only is there a safety net below you, but there is also a net above you as well. Hasn't this been thoroughly debunked by economic mobility studies? The US regularly ranks below many European countries by this metric, and the nordic countries tend to dominate in this regard.
- ls612 6y ago
  If you look at quintile based measurements sure. But there’s far less difference between the European quintiles than the American ones. So it’s a misleading measure