The Top 10% of Taxpayers Pay 70% of All Taxes. The latest research on U.S. income taxes data (conducted by several nonpartisan and independent organizations) shows that, on average, the top 10% of taxpayers pay approximately 70% of all federal taxes in America. Does “fair” mean they should be paying 80%, 90%, or 100% of all taxes instead? Is that the definition of “fair share” that both Obama and Buffett would be more comfortable and happy with? I think Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels would definitely have approved.
John Steele Gordon, business and economic historian, on the American tax code and the Buffett Tax. He also echoes everything I said in my 15 minute video on the Buffet Tax. Millionaires aren’t necessarily rich and they dont necessarily think of themselves as rich, for good reason.
Being rich has gotten more expensive. A $1 million fortune was unusual in the early 19th century. The word “millionaire” wasn’t even coined until 1827 by novelist (and future British prime minister) Benjamin Disraeli. In 1845, Moses Y. Beach, editor of the New York Sun, published a small pamphlet called “Wealth and Biography of the Wealthy Citizens of New York City.” The price of admission to Beach’s list, which was wildly popular, was a mere $100,000.
By the time the first Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America was published in 1982, the smallest fortune featured was $75 million. There has been so much wealth creation in the past 30 years — much of it thanks to the microprocessor behind modern-day fortunes such as Dell, Microsoft and Bloomberg — that only billionaires are on the list. Today, $1 million in the bank generates only about $50,000 per year in interest. That isn’t chump change, but it’s roughly equal to the 2010 median household income.
Further examples of “why lefties hate any Fox News related broadcast” are found in this Buffet Tax fact vs fiction segment:
And another on this “fair share” bullshit: Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes talks in this segment about the government’s punishment of the rich (and also who will win in 2012).
Note to hippies: the sooner you stop with the communist bullshit and go back to the government control that I agree with (sorry Tea Partiers, but yes, you are too stupid to make some of your own choices and no freedom isnt the answer to everything – just like government power isnt the answer to EVERYTHING), the sooner I can go back to teasing Rep Boner about being orange and crying all the time. Until then though.. I’m with Rep. John Boehner, (R-Ohio), on his view of the President’s proposed tax hikes on the wealthy, his efforts to reduce government spending and the need to reduce regulations.
Enough already. The government isn’t entitled to the money people earn any more when they make a lot than what they’re entitled to when they make a little. The American Dream is about encouraging people to become millionaires, not punishing them for it with higher tax rates that are pertinently unfair.
