Monday, July 11, 2011
Fair Share
President Obama has talked for a long time about fairness and taxes. Here is an excerpt from a pretty bad speechhe gave a few months ago.
He obviously doesn't think the "rich" are paying their fair share of income taxes because he constantly talks about raisingtax rates on the rich revenue from taxing the rich more.
Let's see if he's right about the rich not paying their fair share. Let's look at the brackets.
It would be fair to pay the exact same percent of taxes as your percent of income received.
Is there any other way to call it fair? If the top 1% earns 30% of the nation's income, they should pay 30% of the income taxes. Likewise if the bottom 50% earn 10% of the income in the nation, they should pay 10% of the income taxes.
How does that concept stack up to reality? Not so good, according to IRS analysis of 2010 income taxes. The rich don't pay their fair share; they pay way more. The top 1% (above $380,000/yr) paid 38% of the income taxes paid but only earned 20% of the income in America. It's similar with the top 5%, who paid 58.7% of the income taxes but only earned 34.7% of the nation's income. The top 10% ( at or above $113,800/yr) paid nearly 70% of the income taxes but only took in 45.8% of the income. The bottom 50% take in 12.7% of the income in America but only paid 2.7% of the income taxes. What's fair about that? There is only one solution. Tax the poor more and make them pay their fair share.
Just kidding. There is nothing more fair than a flat tax. Even formerly commie Russia now has a flat tax. Everyone pays 15% of income, with few deductions. That's fair, as I've written before.
As a country that values fairness, wealthier individuals have traditionally born a greater share of this burden than the middle class or those less fortunate. This is not because we begrudge those who’ve done well – we rightly celebrate their success. Rather, it is a basic reflection of our belief that those who have benefitted most from our way of life can afford to give a bit more back.
He obviously doesn't think the "rich" are paying their fair share of income taxes because he constantly talks about raising
Let's see if he's right about the rich not paying their fair share. Let's look at the brackets.
It would be fair to pay the exact same percent of taxes as your percent of income received.
Is there any other way to call it fair? If the top 1% earns 30% of the nation's income, they should pay 30% of the income taxes. Likewise if the bottom 50% earn 10% of the income in the nation, they should pay 10% of the income taxes.
How does that concept stack up to reality? Not so good, according to IRS analysis of 2010 income taxes. The rich don't pay their fair share; they pay way more. The top 1% (above $380,000/yr) paid 38% of the income taxes paid but only earned 20% of the income in America. It's similar with the top 5%, who paid 58.7% of the income taxes but only earned 34.7% of the nation's income. The top 10% ( at or above $113,800/yr) paid nearly 70% of the income taxes but only took in 45.8% of the income. The bottom 50% take in 12.7% of the income in America but only paid 2.7% of the income taxes. What's fair about that? There is only one solution. Tax the poor more and make them pay their fair share.
Just kidding. There is nothing more fair than a flat tax. Even formerly commie Russia now has a flat tax. Everyone pays 15% of income, with few deductions. That's fair, as I've written before.
Labels: Income Taxes: Class Envy
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 3:47 PM 
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Yeah, let's model ourselves after the systemically corrupt Russian system. Brilliant!
# posted by 
: 11:40 AM
: 11:40 AM
The tragedy of the modern Russians is that they replaced the bankrupt, failed, murderous Communist system with a form of capitalism that had huge helpings of crime (the bane of capitalism) but tiny slices of freedom; but at least they got the tax system right. Thanks for the compliment. It is brilliant, I think.
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