{sigh} this is what happens when folks mis-read the data and use their ignorance to try to make a political point. This data is from the link I posted earlier. (post 33) The average income tax rate in 2020 was 13.6 percent. The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid a 25.99 percent average rate, more than eight times higher than the 3.1 percent average rate paid by the bottom half of taxpayers. The top 1 percent’s income share rose from 20.1 percent in 2019 to 22.2 percent in 2020 and its share of federal income taxes paid rose from 38.8 percent to 42.3 percent. The top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97.7 percent of all federal individual income taxes, while the bottom 50 percent paid the remaining 2.3 percent The 13.6% average is for ALL tax payers, including the top earners. The rate for the bottom 1/2 of all earners is 3.1%. The median taxpayers, the ones in the absolute middle of earners, did in fact pay something in between those numbers, in the 10% to 15% range. However, as for the 2021 White House claim about 8.2% rate for the top 400 families, if you actually read the report, their calculations included "unrealized capital gains". Most of you will understand the implication of that, and a few will not, but it renders the 8.2% number meaningless. Fact is the top 1% paid an average of ~26% So this whole thread was based on a (to be polite) gross misunderstanding of the data. Jeebus, this is getting tedious. I'm to old to have to deal with *********s
However, average American workers don't have to pay for high-priced tax attorneys. If I had the money, I'd rather pay it to a lawyer working for a living than the government. Whatever might be done to the tax code, it's not going to affect the highest earners as you might think it does because 1) they are in charge, and 2) they can afford lawyers who can find their way around it. Changes in tax law advertised as hitting the top 3% of taxpayers, in reality, strike at the middle class, who have money the government wants but not enough of it individually to wield political power. Why do you think so many people at the very top are pushing for these laws?
Well, it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of funny accounting going on if the top 1% are paying an average of 26% in taxes. The MAX rate for ordinary income is 37%, which kicks in at a little over $500k and the MAX rate for realized capital gains is 20%, which also kicks in at the same level. (Contrary to what the White House paper said, unrealized capital gains are not taxable since they are not income. That 8.2% number was fiction, designed to fool the gullible.) Lots of middle income families need help with their taxes, as evidenced by Block, etc, locations on every street corner.. And certainly those top 1%er would like to pay less. So would I. So would you. And since almost half of American households pay virtually zero federal taxes, that is not unreasonable. My personal opinion is that America doesn't have a tax revenue problem, we have a spending problem.
Dunno about anyone else but I’m still ticked at all the greedy buggers that snagged up all the toilet paper when the last pandemic hit. Rich people, poor people and a bunch of greedy ne’er-do-wells in between all wanting to be the only folks left on the planet who could comfortably clean their butts! I’m sure that all the anally focused politicians in D.C. had their shelves stocked and I’m doubly certain that there were a multitude of people who didn’t pay their fair share of taxes who were out there going store to store and filling up their carts and baskets with the high dollar 4 ply stuff and leaving the 1 ply stuff for those on food stamps. I seriously believe that the government should have stepped in and rationed the tidy wipers in proportion to how much food people bought; $50-$150 worth of food gets ya 1 roll, $150-$300 get’s ya 2 rolls and so forth. As it stood, I only had 20 pairs of shoes I could snatch the insoles out of when I couldn’t find the paper stuff on the shelves and when the lint catcher in our $2000 dryer just didn’t produce enough lint to do the job. Yup, there really isn’t any extent that the greedy won’t go to to have it all.
That would be me. In my defense, I already had Amazon subscriptions for toilet paper and paper towels in bulk prior to the time that they disappeared from the store shelves, and that subscription continued long after the shortages began. So we had plenty of paper towels and toilet paper here. For the record, I still buy these things in bulk, by subscription, because it's cheaper and it's not like they're going to go bad on me. At this moment, I have more than a case of paper towels, and am expecting two cases of toilet paper and another case of paper towels soon.
It might be considered to be a bit of a penumbra but being a good boy scout and following the creed of being prepared isn’t the same as being greedy. Greed’s motto is that there is never enough.
Yes, I remember that toilet paper situation well. It left me feeling wiped out. And flushed. It wasn't a bit Charmin. I'm on a roll.