"20% of taxpayers pay 80% of taxes"

[doubleplusgood]

I am so tired of hearing this argument go unchallenged.

OK, so we've all heard this type of statistic thrown out by Republicans. Sure, it sounds unfair, doesn't it ? It sounds like 20% of the people carrying 80% of the burden. Not stated, though, is the fact that the top 20% have 60%, 70% or 80% or whatever high percentage of the nations income. The unstated inference here, of course, is that fairness should require that the top 20% income earners should only pay 20% of the taxes. Needless to say, this would only be possible if everyone in the country paid EXACTLY THE SAME DOLLAR AMOUNT IN TAXES, regardless of income !

In a similar fashion, Bush talks about the vast majority of his tax cuts going to average Americans. Using his logic, though, he would say the same thing if most people got just $.01 tax reduction and trillions went to the few at the top.

We have to call them on these bogus arguments when they bring this up.

[AP]

1. There is not point at which the top X% pay a greater percentage in taxes

than they percentage of total income they earn.

The higher the percentile you're in, the lower the ration of your tax burden to the % of total wealth you control.

100% pay 100% of the taxes and control 100% of the wealth. When you get to the top 1% they control something like 50% of the total wealth in American but only pay something like 38% of the total tax burden. That mean that that the other 99% is left pulling 62% of the weight even though they only control 50% of the wealth. That ain't fair.

[bemildred]

2. Let's give everybody the same income,

then we can tax them all the same too.

[OnionPatch]

3. The sad truth is that

labor is totally undervalued. The working poor are exploited because of their desperation and powerlessness. No one ever talks about this.
I figure once someone gets to that upper level of income, they've done it on the backs of many people whose work was undervalued, whether they meant to or not. Paying taxes is the best way to make it right. Otherwise we may as well live in a third-world country where people work 12 hour days and hardly make enough money to eat. And if conservatives stay in power long enough, we WILL become a third-world country.
If they are trying to make me feel sorry for them that they pay 80% of the taxes, it's not working.

[TahitiNut]

4. The Gini Index in the US is now above .45.

That's "banana republic" territory. It's going higher. In the 70's it was down around .35. Canada is .30. Mexico is .49.

Plantation economics is screwing the working class so the owners can have fresh mint in their juleps year-round.

[cosmicvortex20]

5. Technically, they do, but not by much.

1986 -- Avg Tax Rate
Top 1% -- 31.6%
Top 5% -- 24.8%
Top 10% -- 22.0%
Top 25% -- 18.3%
Top 50% -- 16.0%
<50% -- 5.6%

1996
Top 1% -- 28.7%
Top 5% -- 23.9%
Top 10% -- 21.4%
Top 25% -- 18.0%
Top 50% -- 15.9%
<50% -- 4.4%

The tax burden most certainly does fall on the top half of the income base where the lower 50% pays less the 5% at this time. Personally I find these numbers somewhat fair and where I would expect them. I do think it dangerous though when half the population has unfettered freedom to control the tax rates of the other half. Good recipe for implosion.

No wonder half the population polled dont think their paying too much in taxes.

[Mechatanketra]

6. The problem is the phrase "tax burden".

It's real simple: the burden of (i.e. the "suffering" imposed by) any tax is not sensibly measured by how much you pay, but by how little you have left. If you're the richest man in America before taxes, you'll be the richest man in America after taxes, guaranteed (because we have a staged tax system -- everyone pays the same taxes on the same block of money) ... and hence, you're the last guy in America who gets to complain that his taxes are too high.