Since 1980 the top 1 percent has doubled its share of the nation’s total income—from 10 percent to 20 percent. The share of the top one-tenth of 1 percent has tripled. The share of the top-most one-one hundredth of 1 percent—16,000 families—has quadrupled. The richest 400 Americans now have more wealth than the bottom 150 million of us put together.Preach it, Bob. If the rich can't pay more in taxes, nobody can. The claim that having wealthy folks pay as high of a percentage of their income in taxes as commoners will hurt the economy is stupid on its face. How the entire Republican party can pretend it is true just boggles my mind.
Meanwhile, the tax rates paid by the wealthy have dropped precipitously. Before 1981 the top marginal tax rate was never lower than 70 percent. Under President Dwight Eisenhower it was 93 percent. Even after taking all the deductions and tax credits available to them, the rich paid around 54 percent.
The top tax rate is now only 35 percent and the tax on capital gains (increases in the value of investments) is only 15 percent. Since so much of what they earn is from capital gains, many of the super-rich, like Mitt Romney himself, pay 14 percent or less. That’s a lower tax rate than many middle-class Americans pay.
In fact, if you add up all the taxes paid—not just on income and capital gains but also payroll taxes (which don’t apply to income above incomes of $110,100), and sales taxes—most of us are paying a higher percent of our income in taxes than are those at the top.
So how can anyone argue against raising taxes on the rich? Easy. They say it will slow the economy because the rich are “job creators.”
In the immortal words of Joe Biden, that’s malarky.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
The Rich and Taxes
Robert Reich calls shenanigans on the taxes hurt job creators line:
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Tax the rich at 100% and it will run the government for 5 months. The whole taxing the rich scheme is all politics and vote getting by the socialist, liberal democrats. I get so sick of listening to this crap day in and day out about asking the rich to pay more. I ask you. . . Do we have a revenue problem or a spending problem?
ReplyDeleteBoth. Anybody can tell that cutting taxes for rich folks isn't going to help us in the future because it hasn't helped us at all in the past 10 years.
ReplyDeleteEurope has been trying the "tax the rich" scheme for years. How's that been going for them? Oh yeah, the Eurozone is in utter collapse. Absolute genius there buddy. Revene problem? Really? If you believe the stat's that unemployment is 8% (which is a bullshit # that only those drinking the liberal Koolaid believe) then we should be flush with cash even if some of the folks are not contributing a whole hell of a lot. You can't tax your way to prosperity. Not everyone can be rich. Life is not always fair. Everyone needs to live within their means. Rich and poor. Not everyone needs a fancy house. Not everyone needs a cell phone. Not everyone needs a cable and flat screen tv. The government needs to learn to stop telling people they are entitled to all of the above. It's freaking reality. You just can't regulate every aspect of every persons life.
DeleteI hate to tell you, but the reason Europe is screwed isn't the social welfare but that they have a federal currency without a federal government. The main reason red states get by in this country is that the federal government taxes folks in blue states and sends it to folks in red states. That's the dirty little secret in this country. If we had a system like Europe, Nevada and Arizona would be in a depression, and most of the South would be third world countries. As for rich and poor, most people don't need three houses in Vail like one of the Enron execs. As for cable and flat screens, we wouldn't have as many rich people in entertainment without mass media. Actually, we wouldn't have near as many rich people without mass consumption. I don't know how rich you are, but if you have a net worth under $2 million, Republicans are screwing you.
ReplyDeleteSo let me get this right. You are saying that what Europe is missing is a centralized, massive government to redistribute wealth? Also, let me also confirm that what you are saying is that the blue states do all the work in keeping the economy going given they have no farming or manufacturing? A tornado runs across Joplin and the news stories are all about neighbors helping neighbors and the community coming together. Katrina and Sandy hit some urban area's and all I see on the news is robberies, shootings, rapes and people begging for help. If the shit ever hit the fan I put my money on your third world South surviving long after some dumbass from !New York starves to death.
ReplyDeleteTurn off Fox News. Plenty of people in New York have been helping one another. Plenty of federal help went into Joplin. I am saying that the blue states pay most of the taxes that get transferred to the states like Alabama. If the shit hits the fan and northeastern cities collapse, the south will have some serious problems. And yes, what Europe needs is a federal system which provides counter-cyclical economic support. It also could use a common language so that folks in Spain could emigrate to Germany for a job.
ReplyDelete