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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums5 Reasons the Top (Marginal) Tax Rate Should Be 80 Percent
Last edited Mon Feb 15, 2016, 04:05 PM - Edit history (1)
Looks like Bernie is correct - AGAIN!http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/02/15/5-reasons-top-tax-rate-should-be-80-percent
It came up in the Republican debate again, the curious notion that striving for less inequality is somehow a form of "class warfare." The implication is that the richest people earned everything they have through their own initiative and hard work. But most of them have exploited an American financial system that has facilitated the transfer of our national wealth to the people who manage that wealth.
Informed Americans understand that an economic war has been waged against the middle and lower classes. As a result, there are at least five good reasons why the tax rate on the upper classes should be MUCH higher.
1. Massive Redistribution Has Occurred. Upward.
Total U.S. wealth increased by a stunning 60 percent since 2009, from $54 trillion to $86 trillion, but 3/4 of that massive increase went to the richest 10% of Americans. According to the New York Times, the wealthiest Americans have formed an "income defense industry" to shelter their riches, with, "a high-priced phalanx of lawyers, estate planners, lobbyists and anti-tax activists who exploit and defend a dizzying array of tax maneuvers, virtually none of them available to taxpayers of more modest means." From 2003 to 2012 the average income tax rate paid by the richest 1% went down, while for the 99% it went up.
2. Subsidies to the Rich are SIX Times Greater Than Subsidies to the Poor
The cost of the entire Safety Net is only about ONE-SIXTH of the $2.2 trillion in tax expenditures, tax underpayments, tax havens, and corporate nonpayment, the great majority of which went to the richest Americans.
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5 Reasons the Top (Marginal) Tax Rate Should Be 80 Percent (Original Post)
Ferd Berfel
Feb 2016
OP
nichomachus
(12,754 posts)1. You need to add "marginal" tax rate.
People in the top tier don't get taxed the max amount on everything they take in -- although they'd like you to think that's the case.
Up to a certain income point, they pay the same tax rate as everyone else. Then, as the income rises, the tax on the income above the maximum step below, is taxed at a higher rate. When you get to the mega-income stage, you're paying 80 percent, but you're still paying only 25 percent or so on money below that.
Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)2. I'm sure the author intended that - you are correct - added for clearity!
Thanks