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[1] https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-stat...
Without delving into any moral or fairness arguments, it is probably fair to say that a US tax payer in the top 1% probably already pays 10x to 100x in taxes, in absolute terms, compared to the median tax payer. If I'm reading this [1] correctly, in 2020 about 99% of the population was responsible for 56% of individual taxes while 1% was responsible for the rest 44%. [1] https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-i…
Without delving into any moral or fairness arguments, it is probably fair to say that a US tax payer in the top 1% probably already pays 10x to 100x in taxes, in absolute terms, compared to the median tax payer. If I'm reading this [1] correctly, in 2020 about 99% of the population was responsible for 56% of individual taxes while 1% was responsible for the rest 44%. [1] https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-i…
Wait till you do the math on how much money that 1% has relative to the 99%.
What they have is post-tax. You can't just eye up what they have left over as if it has never been taxed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
conveniently?
A basis for argument by low tax fanatics that think a modern Athenian state is possible, drugs, TV shows, VLSI and togas, all in with jets and retsina. UK income tax was notoriously applied as a temporary expedient. The low tax fans want a return to the pre Victorian levels of poverty that went hand in hand with the non-welfare state.
Low tax advocates want a more streamlined government that looks after core functions (managing trash, police, etc) rather than what it has taken on today (entire multimillion dollar agencies tasked with getting more women into high status jobs, regulation of the size and shape of cabbages, etc)
The idea that "people who want less tax than I do just crave widespread poverty" is a sign you have an ideological brainworm. No one thinks like that.
This is a case of apples and oranges. Modern people expect more from their government than the Athenians so more people need to pay taxes to finance it. I agree that the more you earn the more you should pay in terms of percentage of income but the idea that only the rich need to pay taxes is unmaintainable. Also, when it comes to taxes no one is rich, just ask the high income people. There are plenty of people that…
I'm not so sure.
Taxes are for lots of things, but one of them is making sure a power hungry psycopath doesn't set themself up as king. We might end up spending less of it on weapons that cost thousands of dollars every time you pull the trigger if we taxed the problem away before it could gain momentum.
Scroll through and open a random sample of articles - you will quickly see they're basically a slightly higher-brow version of the "women have better sex under socialism" school of modern pseudojournalism.
Without delving into any moral or fairness arguments, it is probably fair to say that a US tax payer in the top 1% probably already pays 10x to 100x in taxes, in absolute terms, compared to the median tax payer. If I'm reading this [1] correctly, in 2020 about 99% of the population was responsible for 56% of individual taxes while 1% was responsible for the rest 44%. [1] https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-i…
Critically the definitions get warped so stock appreciation for example doesn’t count unless you sell it. And when you finally do capital gains isn’t taxed as normal income. You can even give stock away without ever paying any form of income taxes on these gains.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait till you do the math on how much money that 1% has relative to the 99%.
That doesn't matter. You don't get taxed on how much you have, you get taxed on every dollar as it comes in. What they have is post-tax. You can't just eye up what they have left over as if it has never been taxed.
What? No. Net worth amounts are quoted in approximate pre-tax amounts. The vast bulk of which, for the 1%, are deferred capital gains taxes. The rest of us don’t get the ability to defer taxes until we feel like it, and capital gains are taxed at a lower rate too because… just because.
Without delving into any moral or fairness arguments, it is probably fair to say that a US tax payer in the top 1% probably already pays 10x to 100x in taxes, in absolute terms, compared to the median tax payer. If I'm reading this [1] correctly, in 2020 about 99% of the population was responsible for 56% of individual taxes while 1% was responsible for the rest 44%. [1] https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-i…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't matter. You don't get taxed on how much you have, you get taxed on every dollar as it comes in. What they have is post-tax. You can't just eye up what they have left over as if it has never been taxed.
> What they have is post-tax. What? No. Net worth amounts are quoted in approximate pre-tax amounts. The vast bulk of which, for the 1%, are deferred capital gains taxes. The rest of us don’t get the ability to defer taxes until we feel like it, and capital gains are taxed at a lower rate too because… just because.
40% of Americans have investments in stocks, it is hardly confined to 1%.