Lies, damn lies, and statistics: > To wit, “The Stat” is that the highest-earning one percent of taxpayers pay 40 percent of all income taxes. […] The first pr

Lies, damn lies, and statistics: > To wit, “The Stat” is that the highest-earning one percent of taxpayers pay 40 percent of all income taxes. […] The first problem with The Stat is that it makes no reference to the proportion of income the rich earn. The juxtaposition between one percent and 40 percent is meant to convey the idea that a small number of people are carrying a gigantic and disproportionate burden, but the figure lacks any context when it omits how much money they earn in the first place. > Indeed, it turns the fact that rich people account for a massive share of the income pool into a reason to see them as mistreated. One common move for polemicists brandishing this figure is to note that the share of taxes paid by the rich is “up sharply” over the past couple decades — which it is, on account of rich people claiming a larger share of the national income. The logic implied by The Stat is that the bigger the proportion of income earned by the richest one percent, the more imperative it is to reduce their tax rates, so that they don’t pay too high a share of the tax burden. * https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/fact-check-richest-1-dont-pay-40-of-the-taxes.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/fact-check-richest-1... > Between 2014 and 2018, the 25 wealthiest Americans collectively earned $401bn, but paid just $13.6bn – about 3.4% of that – in taxes, according to a bombshell ProPublica investigation into the finances of the wealthiest Americans released on Wednesday. […] > Billionaires in tech pay the lowest tax rate, an average of 17% of their income, largely because their wealth comes from such investment income. Bill Gates, whose income from 2013 to 2018 was an average of $2.85bn a year, paid an average effective federal income tax rate of 18.4%. Lauren Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, earned an average of $1.57bn and paid an average tax rate of 14.8%. Ten of the top 15 earners on the list are billionaires who made their money in tech. > In comparison, the average single worker earning $45,000 paid an average tax rate of 21%. A married couple with one child who earns $200,000 paid a rate of 26%. In 2018, the highest top rate on ordinary income, which excludes investments, was 37%, yet the average tax rate for the 400 wealthiest Americans was 22% from 2013 to 2018. * https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/13/wealthiest-americans-tax-income-propublica-investigation https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/13/wealthiest-a... When you grab most of the income generated in the economy (leaving little for the folks at the bottom), then of course you pay most of the income taxes.