MIDDLE CLASS pays the MOST Taxes

[FreakinDJ]

Stop being duped by the Fu$%ing FreepTards

The biggest increase, however, was among those making $56,000 to $92,800, whose share of all income taxes increased to 18 percent from 16.7 percent. They accounted for a larger share of income taxes than the very wealthiest, the top tenth of 1 percent of Americans who paid 16 percent of the government's total income taxes.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9401E6D6123DF934A1575AC0A9659C8B63

[GKirk]

1. Stats are confusing

How many people make up the middle class versus how many make up the 'very wealthiest', the top tenth of 1 percent
as stated in the article?

[rfranklin]

2. The actual numbers don't matter because that is not what this is refuting...

Obviously the number of people in the top one percent is less than the number of middle class people. Freepers make wild assertions such as "the top one percent pays 98 percent of all taxes."

[PDJane]

5. There's another aspect to this, though.

The top 1% use, by virtue of their wealth, more of the wealth of the commons, and they are not paying for the damage they do to the environment, the amount of resources they use, nor the fact that they are refusing to share the wealth.

Those things are the reason that the US is in the position it is, and the wealthy will not pay their fair share without being forced to. If that 1% pays 75% of the taxes, that means that:

1. The tax rate is nowhere near high enough to support the government, and certainly not enough to pay for the wars that the US insists on waging. How long are foreigners going to pay for the wars the US wages and US military expansion? Why would they? Moreover, since the US military is the world's largest single polluter, bringing the military home would immediately help the atmosphere.

2. The figures are being manipulated. There are a million hidden and regressive taxes that are not being added into the mix, and they hit the poor and middle class the hardest.

3. The government infrastructure is being starved; as a result, the infrastructure built as the US was coming out of the last great depression has crumbled practically to dust. This is insane. A civilized country needs things like high speed rail, roads, bridges, ATC, public transit, universal health care, day care and education.

4. Think of the numbers in terms of percentages. If less than 1% of the population is receiving, as is the case according to the latest statistics, 25% of the GDP, then the fact that they are paying 75% of the taxes is not outrageous; in fact, the tax rate should be higher. That means that somewhere around 300 people are hogging the wealth! About 40% of 315,000,000 per year, the amount that is average for that group, leaves $189,000,000 per annum, which doesn't seem like a poverty level to me. They've done very well from the recession, and they have invested in large swathes of farmland, for instance...particularly that land that hogs the water table. There's a lovely thought. They'll get richer when that land starts to become rarer, and the cost of food will likely become outrageous. What happens then? Hunger is already rampant in the US, thanks to lack of job creation.

The only way to prevent disaster is to revise the tax structure so that it is more progressive, and to use those funds to create jobs and to move to a more equitable social structure. Unless, of course, you think that serfdom is a fine way to live.

[GKirk]

8. I'm a little confused...

...but that isn't unusual. You said "If that 1% pays 75% of the taxes". Doesn't that mean if we had a population of 100 people
that the guy at the top would be paying 75% of the taxes and the other 99 people would be paying 1.3% each? Why is that unfair?

[bighart]

3. The top 50% of earners, 50k adjusted gross income and above,

do pay over 90% of all income tax according to the IRS.

[ehrnst]

6. But in terms of percentage of their income, they pay the least. (nt)

[bighart]

7. Agreed

I love statistics, use them every day, and know how easy they are to manipulate. As a wise person once said: "Figures lie and liars figure".

[BrklynLiberal]

4. and will continue to do so for as long as the repukes can manage to keep it going.

[Dover]

9. Most of the wealth is in offshore accounts that is never taxed to begin with.

So yes, the Middle Class has the bulk of the tax burden times 1000. And of course the Middle Class is also expected to bail them out. And yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. But only for the few.
The system is rigged, and the disenfranchised masses would have better odds in Vegas.


And since the smallest, wealthiest percentage 'own' countries and governments, that won't change until there is a groundswell of resistance from the masses around the world.

I don't know why this discrepency in wealth distribution is still considered a 'revelation' by folks here on DU. Here's just one of many old posts on this topic:

How much money is currently OUTSIDE the country? Who made this LEGAL???!!!!

So, let me get this straight - Not only do our tax laws provide the wealthiest Americans with an enormous tax break, but these leading banks are providing their wealthy clients with tax havens and protections by creating shell companies in offshore accounts....thus shifting the tax burden almost entirely onto the backs of the majority of working class Americans.

And now, to add to this obscenity, the working class is also BAILING THESE BANKS OUT!!!!

cont'd...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=114x46457

[bvar22]

10. And the Middle/Working CLass WILL pay a greater share....

...as the Obama/Bush Tax Cuts for the RICH become permanent in 2012.
There really is no such thing as a Tax Cut while running deficits.


Someone WILL pay back every cent we borrow PLUS INTEREST to finance these cuts for the RICH,
and with the decrease in the percentage the RICH are paying (Inheritance Tax and lower top bracket), the burden for the repayment WILL increase for the Middle/Working Class and OUR children.

In reality, the Obama/Bush Tax Cuts are a Tax Increase on the Middle/Working Class and OUR children.

[Faryn Balyncd]

11. K&R,...and the middle class pay 15.3% FICA tax on virtually all of their income.

[demandTheGoodLife.co]

12. Our taxes are a complete SCAM

Rich people pay a LOWER tax rate.

In our current system, Warren Buffet, the world's richest man, pays just 17.7% of his income towards tax while his secretary pays 37.5%, more than double.

The reason why Warren Buffet pays so much less is because rich people have successfully lobbied government to reduce the amount of taxes the wealthy pay.

Rich people have successfully lobbied government to tax their income from stock dividends (their primary source of income) at a maximum rate of only 15%, while regular wage earners get their income taxed at a maximum rate of 35%.

Rich people have also successfully lobbied government to make all of their income from interest, dividends and capital gains completely EXEMPT from the FICA tax. The rest of us wage earners have to pay a 15% FICA tax.

And just in case rich people do generate some income from wages, they have also successfully lobbied government to make all of their wage income above $106,801 completely EXEMPT from the FICA tax.

The solution is to have EVERYONE pay a simple, flat, 50% tax on ALL their income. And then use a portion of that tax revenue to pay every adult a $20k yearly dividend and an additional $30k yearly dividend to every worker, or every post-secondary school student, or every person who is interested in volunteering (such as those who are unemployed) at an approved civic or charitable organization so that every citizen is guaranteed a decent standard of living.