Even if that 5% have 50% of the wealth?
They don't.
"The top 1 percent of taxpayers pay about one-third of all income taxes. The top 5 percent pay more than half. The top 10 percent pay nearly two-thirds. The top 25 percent pay more than $4 of every $5. "
cato.org
"According to the latest preliminary data from the Internal Revenue Service, 1 percent of all taxpayers paid more
than one-third of the total federal income taxes collected during 1997 (the latest year available). "
"At the other end of the spectrum, the bottom half of the nation's taxpayers earned 13.8 percent of all income in
1997, but--again, due to the nature of the tax system, which imposes a proportionately larger burden as one's
income increases, but a smaller share of the burden at lower levels--this group paid only 4.3 percent of personal
federal income taxes paid. "
heartland.org
That year, the top-earning 1 percent of U.S. taxpayers--those with an
income over $250,736--earned 17.4 percent of the income earned
for that year. Thanks to the nature of the federal income tax, this
group of roughly 1.2 million taxpayers paid not 17.4 percent, but
33.2 percent of the total federal income taxes collected.
jsonline.com
townhall.com;
Tim, first let me just say you are tearing me up with this sad news. As a result, I plan to pass the hat for B. Gates asap.
Secondly, let me say that its not surprising that the top 17% pay 34% of total income taxes. There are a lot of employed people who pay little if any taxes at all because if they did, they would not have any money left over to live on. And before I get a lot of complaining posts, I would hazard to guess that a lot of us have been in that position at one time or another in our lives. I know that I was in that position when I was in school, and during the first year after I graduated.
BTW what was brought to an end was not communism but a right wing
dictatorship playing under the guise of communism.
Your definition of "right wing" seems to be anything that is bad.
Excuse me. You want examples of left wing dictatorships......look at Castro, and a number of gov'ts in South America. We normally do not talk about these countries so that issue has not come up. And just for the record, I think all dictatorships, left or right or middle of the road, are bad.
Netanyahu is the one more articulate, more charismatic, the one more prime ministerial etc.
Because of some disatisfaction from last time he was PM. But I think many Israeli voters have gotten over that. I understand the polls support the idea that if an election where held now Netanyahu would probably become PM.
They do. I think it was Joe who reminded me that Netanyahu didn't even run last time........he and Barak played some political games with each other and he got pushed out of the race.
As Z has pointed out, Netanyahu and Sharon both land on the same point of the political spectrum but I think Netanyahu would do a better job of finessing things. However, its hard to put a good spin on invading your opponents' back yard.
ted |
