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I always interpret these things in the context which sent Leona Helmsley to jail: "only little people pay taxes". People heard her say that and were outraged.
by dekhn 2y ago
I always interpret these things in the context which sent Leona Helmsley to jail:
"only little people pay taxes".
People heard her say that and were outraged. What's funny is that when you think about it, it actually does make sense although it's pejorative.
Rich people don't pay taxes. They invest their money, which is incentivized by the government in the form of lower/different taxation. Similarly they use experienced lawyers who understand the tax code to structure their wealth in ways that allow them to pay lower taxes. And the term little people, while pejorative, really represents the power differential between people like her husband and the "Average Joe". Trump is not little people, but he's somehow managed to express things in ways that "little" people (using Leona's terminology, not my own) like.
Much of politics is about not directly saying the truth, whether it be ugly, undesired, or complicated. Instead it's about understanding what drives voters (higher out of pocket prices uncoupled from concomitant wage increases) and how to say the thing they want to hear, while also enacting policies that achieve your political goals.
- valval 2y agoRich people pay way more taxes than poor people. The top income earners pay for everything in this country and all the other countries.
- bdavisx 2y ago>Rich people pay way more taxes than poor people. Not as a percentage of their income, especially when all "taxes" (anything the government charges for) are taken into account.
- valval 2y agoI can guarantee you without any shadow of a doubt that rich people pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than poor people because of progressive taxation in the US.
- kelipso 2y agoAbove a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year or so, the percentage starts going down because the income comes from stocks etc.
- sokoloff 2y agoA lot of poor people pay literally no federal income tax. (Just over 40% of households pay no federal income tax.)
- kelipso 2y agoSure, you still have people making a million dollars pay less in percentage income tax than people making $200k.
- sokoloff 2y agoAnd people who make $200K and $1M/yr are both paying a higher rate than actual poor people. Unless you're arguing that someone making $200K/yr is in the category of "poor" in which case it would pay to be explicit, because that's not going to be the most natural interpretation for most people.
- kelipso 2y agoLol maybe but when I see rich people I definitely think more than $300k.
- jbn 2y agosee https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/18/who-pays-and-doesnt-pay-federal-income-taxes-in-the-us/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/18/who-pays-... income tax is progressive but tends to become regressive at the very top when individuals have control over what counts as "realized income". The ultra wealthy in fact don't pay so much tax (and certainly not their "fair" share). What you say is true absent any tax optimization, alas there is such a thing, especially at the top. Also, see works of Zucman and Saez.
- dekhn 2y agoobviously percentage, not absolute amount.