I blame "Cribs" and Paris Hilton

I'll add these, though I haven't been able to check their validity. If you
find other statistics please post them.

The U.S. rank among developed nations in the gap between the richest and poorest citizens: we're #1 !

Percent of all U.S. wealth (stocks, bonds, cash, homes, real estate, cars, boats, DVDs, Tupperware, etc) owned by richest 1% of Americans: 33.4%.

Percent of all U.S. wealth owned by the bottom 90% of Americans: 30.4%.

Average increase in income over the last 6 years for 80% of the workforce is 3.9%.
Inflation has been at or above that rate, so wages are NOT keeping up with inflation.

Home heating costs have risen 60-70%, and health insurance premiums (for those that HAVE health insurance) have risen over 80%.

The impact of the 2006 Extension of Tax Cuts for Capital Gains and Dividends is: the average cut for people making under $50,000 a year is $3, while the average cut for people making $1 million or more a year is $59,972.

The impact of the 2006 Extension of Tax Cuts for Capital Gains and Dividends is: the average cut for people making under $50,000 a year is $3, while the average cut for people making $1 million or more a year is $59,972

How much doe's a person making one million pay in taxes as opposed to the one making fifty? Proportionate?

Proportionate doesn't matter.

I'll let you in on a little big secret: people who make a million dollars a year
pay almost nothing in taxes, because they use tax shelters and investments
and bonds to avoid paying taxes, because that's the point of the tax system.
If they just put their money in their mattress or in a bank account inflation
would go through the roof and we'd have another great depression, which was
a crisis of surplus rather than a crisis of deficit. The great depression happened
because a system wasn't in place to accurately make sure the people at the top
spent their money and kept it circulating through the economy, so they ended
up hoarding all of the money at the top, and everyone below them crashed.
The progressive tax system was devised then and there to make certain that
people with excess capital used it in some manner, because the country will
crash to its knees if they don't.

Someone will always pay taxes, we couldn't have a government without
them. Do you really want to charge someone who makes $50,000 a year
the same amount as someone who makes $1,000,000? Look, country clubs
have V.I.P. memberships that cost a little more. I don't know the last time
you had the luxury of taking a couple of weeks off to fly to every National
Park or whatever, but I think they can pay the extra tab for the extra
benefits they get in this country.

Proportionate doesn't matter.

I'll let you in on a little big secret: people who make a million dollars a year
pay almost nothing in taxes, because they use tax shelters and investments
and bonds to avoid paying taxes, because that's the point of the tax system.

Someone will always pay taxes, we couldn't have a government without
them. Do you really want to charge someone who makes $50,000 a year
the same amount as someone who makes $1,000,000?

I think they can pay the extra tab for the extra
benefits they get in this country.

This could open discussion about how we should change our tax system .
Personally , I favor a flat tax rate on sales , if you buy things with your money , you pay tax then , not when you get paid . There should be very few if any shelters available .

This could open discussion about how we should change our tax system .
Personally , I favor a flat tax rate on sales , if you buy things with your money , you pay tax then , not when you get paid . There should be very few if any shelters available .

The hell it don't! I thought you were all about being fair and equal? In this country who pays the majority of taxes collected?

So why is the largest portion of taxes paid by the top 2 to 5%?

I think we should pay proportionately.

What happens when they feel that extra tab should be payed by you? You gonna cry like a stuck pig? Or you gonna pay it because someone like you thought you should pay it instead of him?

Wealthy people have the majority of the money, therefore they pay the majority
of the taxes. Understand that? It is proportionate the way it is, you don't
understand it. They get more benefit from the government and the system,
so they should pay for it. Look up John Stoussel's stories on govt. programs
that benefit the wealthy (having vacations home rebuilt by the govt.
every couple of years after a hurricane, etc.) or just think about how often they use the air-traffic control or infrastructure, the police are faster to
respond to wealthy neighborhoods, etc.

I don't for a minute complain about my taxes... anymore than I complain
about any bill I pay, I get an incredible return on them: The United States
of America, roads and highways, air-traffic control, the military, national parks,
public broadcasting and radio, museums...

If I had a million dollars I wouldn't complain about the current tax rate.
What's left over is more than enough for me to live like a king.

Give tax breaks and cuts to the working and middle-class families... the
people who need it.

How working class people have come to fight for the benefit of the wealthy
in beyond me, and pretty hilarious. I don't see the reverse happening very
often, and when it does those people get attacked for their views. It's like
some kind of sado-masochistic relationship that's come into existance.

I'll let you in on a little big secret: people who make a million dollars a year
pay almost nothing in taxes, because they use tax shelters and investments
and bonds to avoid paying taxes, because that's the point of the tax system.

Wealthy people have the majority of the money, therefore they pay the majority
of the taxes. Understand that?

It is proportionate the way it is, you don't understand it?

Proportionate doesn't matter.

I don't for a minute complain about my taxes... anymore than I complain
about any bill I pay, I get an incredible return on them: The United States
of America, roads and highways, air-traffic control, the military, national parks,
public broadcasting and radio, museums...

If I had a million dollars I wouldn't complain about the current tax rate.
What's left over is more than enough for me to live like a king.

Give tax breaks and cuts to the working and middle-class families... the
people who need it.

How working class people have come to fight for the benefit of the wealthy
in beyond me, and pretty hilarious. I don't see the reverse happening very
often, and when it does those people get attacked for their views. It's like
some kind of sado-masochistic relationship that's come into existance.

Just curious...

Imagine that I was someone who just believed in stock-piling food. Like a
mormon or something. I just had 10 years worth of food in my basement.

All of a sudden, out of the blue, there was a horrible local famine. Everyone
around me was almost starving to death, but since I had a stockpile I made
a deal with a few deputies I know - they get to share it with me if they
guard my house with automatic rifles. So, I don't share any of it with anyone.
most of whom die, including you and your family, before relief arrives.

Would I be considered a hero? Wise and prudent? A monster? Which?

DRNALINE,

The wealthy do "pay" more, but it is porportionate, and then they have shelters and investment credits that work
for them so that get deductions which reduce the actual amount they have to pay. So their tax bill is a certain amount
basically that bargain down by participating in various "incentives" that they're given. Their money isn't earmarked
for their kid's stomaches or the clothing on their backs like most Americans.

So who feeds and clothes there kids?