From CNN....47% of American pay ZERO federal taxes.
A number of people have emailed me asking if this makes me mad.
Answer: No, not really. But I think this benefit of zero taxes ought to be extended to the other 53%. THEN you're talking. For now, here is the breakdown....
Percent AGI / Percent of total fed tax revenues
Top 1% 40.42
Top 5% 60.63
Top 10% 71.22
Top 25% 86.59
So, 15 million Americans (including Angus and me) are paying for 61% of all the foreign misadventures and cluster firetrucks of our government. You are welcome, all you deadbeats!
Part of the problem is that all the government programs, ALL of them, are being paid for by a small number of productive people. But the bigger problem is many of the "government programs" involve using my money to go kill civilians and poor people in other countries.
Stop doing that, Mr. Obama. Just stop it. (Yes, we complained about Mr. Bush, also...so shut up)
8 comments:
What I would like to know is: what are the corresponding income percentiles ie What percentage of the income do the top 1% earn. I have never seen this stat, and I would very much like to.
Well Cam, I don't know the answer to your question, but I am pretty sure that the bottom 47% earn quite a bit more than 0% of total income.
I googled it and found this:
The Internal Revenue Service has released new data on individual income taxes, reporting on calendar year 2007, a year in which the economy remained healthy and continued to grow. Individual income tax collections increased substantially that year, while the overall average effective tax rate remained about the same.
In 2007, the top 1 percent of tax returns paid 40.4 percent of all federal individual income taxes and earned 22.8 percent of adjusted gross income. Both of those figures—share of income and share of taxes paid—are significantly higher than they were in 2004 when the top 1 percent earned 19 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI) and paid 36.9 percent of federal individual income taxes.
link is here:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/250.html
Isn't the fear that if >50% of the people are getting a free ride from the remainder, that they've achieved a majority to vote in what ever additional tax increases that they want.
At which point, won't Atlas Shrug?
Interestingly, the headline of the linked article reads, "47% will pay no federal income tax".
Surprisingly, Angus leaves out the one word that dramatically changes the context of the article.
Bravo!
Indeed - the bottom 47% certainly earn more than 0% of total income, but they also pay more than 0% of federal taxes. As anon points out the headline without the word income is disingenuous at best. What are the numbers if we include all federal tax revenue?
Hey guys, that is a Mungowitz post, not an Angus post, so stop pickin' on lil ole angus.
I'm sorry about that...I thought I specifically checked the author, but apparently I cite as well as Munger edits.
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