The rich do not pay the most taxes, they pay ALL the taxes(cnbc.com)
cnbc.com
The rich do not pay the most taxes, they pay ALL the taxes
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101264757
8 comments
It's surprising how badly a financial news channel got this wrong. Seeing the title I thought maybe this was a blog post under the CNBC domain from a first-day intern or something, but this is just shameful.
Interesting that this type of story has the opposite effect from old to new media. In the past only one side of the story would be promoted, no discussion. Now this type story commonly appears in discussions as a foil or straw-man, with facts and reasoning that clearly show the opposing view is right.
[deleted]
The article's definition of rich is a real stretch. The article says the top 40% pay all the taxes. But, the top 40% of households includes every household earning about $65,000 or more.[1]
Remember that this is household income, not individual. A household making $65,000 could consist of, say, two adults and three children. Depending on where in the country this household lives, that might amount to a difficult or comfortable standard of living, but not lavish in any case. This doesn't fit the prevailing understanding of the word "rich."
[1] Two-year-old source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_...
Remember that this is household income, not individual. A household making $65,000 could consist of, say, two adults and three children. Depending on where in the country this household lives, that might amount to a difficult or comfortable standard of living, but not lavish in any case. This doesn't fit the prevailing understanding of the word "rich."
[1] Two-year-old source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_...
If rich in the US is a measly 65k per household then we're good and fucked. If I made 32.5k and my wife made 32.5k then we are far, far from rich, even in "cheap" Chicago, let alone NYC or SF. I suspect this is just more class warfare astroturfing from those rich enough to own the media and create political narratives that benefit themselves.
This is a sensationalist headline. The non-rich are stil taxed plenty in payroll tax, sales tax, gas tax, property tax, etc. Sure, the rich pay a lot more. But "ALL the taxes" is simplifying the issue.
I have not read the linked IRS/Census report within the article, but the CNBC article summarizes the IRS/Census report by saying that the non-rich pay negative tax because of the money they earn in return for welfare. The whole article and report lacks any nuance on the issue of who is paying what taxes.
I have not read the linked IRS/Census report within the article, but the CNBC article summarizes the IRS/Census report by saying that the non-rich pay negative tax because of the money they earn in return for welfare. The whole article and report lacks any nuance on the issue of who is paying what taxes.
I read the underlying article. It's exactly as you expected.
The rich don't have income but capital, so first have a look how much tax is paid over that.
The smart rich don't have taxable capital either, they lease everything in the areas that put a tax burden on capital and leave their capital in places where no such burden is.
you (and to a lesser extent the article) are ignoring the enormous burden of payroll taxes.
[deleted]
Junk
Then there is the part where somehow that means the rich deserve preferential treatment because of this and the other classes must be lazy worthless people...
If you account for all levels of taxation, the U.S. has a pretty flat distributionn for the top 60% that tapers down for the bottom 40%: http://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxday2012.pdf. The top 60% pay between 25-30% of their income in taxes, and the bottom 40% pays between 17-21% of their income in taxes. The regressivity of state and local taxes means that the top 1% is taxed at a lower rate than the next 4%.
In my opinion, all the fighting about who pays the taxes obscures the fact that in the end, the distribution is pretty reasonable, if conservative. The bottom 99% pay about 80% of all taxes, which means that the government isn't overly dependent on the rich. The "middle 59%" (roughly, the lower middle class to the upper middle class), carries 70% of the tax burden. The bottom 40% only make 10% of all the income, and pay about 7% of all the taxes. We could cut their taxes substantially without having a major impact on revenue.