Why the rich should pay more in taxes

[Trample the Elderly]

I don't see why we have to pay taxes at all? I mean they do have a printing press and Keynesians turn it on whenever they feel like it anyway.

As I said before,

CNSNews.com - Middle Class--Not the Rich or the Poor--Pay Majority of Federal Taxes, Says CBO Data

[JoeRedskin]

Just looking at the chart in your article, it still is clear that taxes are weighted to the wealthier.

To me the title of your article is somewhat misleading - To conclude that the "Middle Class" pay the most taxes the article presents an income range from 34K - 141K as paying 50% of the taxes. Okay, while I don't have a problem saying that 141K is "middle class", the definition used is still a pretty broad income range and includes within it taxation rates that are not quite an "apples to apples" comparison. Let's break it down based on the figures cited in the article itself.

From the numbers given in the article and based on the "Quintiles" at the bottom of the page:

Incomes in the 34K-50K range pay 9% of all taxes;
Incomes in the 50K-74K range pay 16% of all taxes.
Thus, people with incomes 74K-141K pay 25% (50% - 9% - 16%) of all taxes.

Further, since all people making more than 74K pay 68% of the taxes, people making more than 141K are paying 43% of all taxes (68% - 25%(the amount paid by the 74K-141K bracket)).

Lets look at the supporting (and cited) data which seems at odds with the article itself:

Under the CBO data (at page 6) cited by the article, the top 10% of income earners (people with pre-tax incomes greater than 394K) pay 55% of all taxes. In other words, ~12M households pay over half of all taxes collected from a total of 116M households (also from the CBO data). Maybe it's just me, but if you are making close to 400K and people within your income class make up only the top 10% of the income population, you are not middle class.

A quote from the CBO article: "Higher-income groups earn a disproportionate share of pretax income and pay a disproportionate share of federal taxes. In 2007, the highest quintile earned 55.9 percent of pretax income and paid 68.9 percent of federal taxes; the top 1 percent of households earned 19.4 percent of income and paid 28.1 percent of taxes."
http://www.cbo.gov/publications/coll...xRates2007.pdf

I am not saying it's right or wrong, I am just saying that those screaming "the Rich aren't paying taxes!" are ignoring the facts. As a result they are either choosing to be ignorant, intentionally spreading misinformation, or simply buying into some demogogue's agenda.

The "Rich" are taxed very heavily and are certainly paying for the privilege of being allowed to accumulate wealth.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by DynamiteRave

Sometimes I wonder if people (not anyone here, but a general question) look at things from a Darwinian-like perspective; that people should always strive to attain as much as they can (objects, money, whatever gets your rocks off) and that those who can't seem grab themselves by their bootstraps or catch a break and attain what they need should be shunned, ignored or otherwise not helped because they are not fit enough (in whatever way necessary) to move up the proverbial ladder.

And I'm not saying that Joe Sixfigures should be the one helping out those who are in need, so don't accuse me of that.

You mean like the person who is a snot nose and bitching all the time.
Like this. WARNING BAD LANGUAGE

YouTube - Rebel Son Quit Your Bitchin flva