On top of the fact that, accounting for all taxes, the rich pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes, a given percentage of income has a much larger effect on the life of the poor than the rich.https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/762687800410485:0
Post by Robert Reich.
[I am including below a copy of the text, in case the Facebook entry disappears.]
I recently debated an apologist for the nation's raging inequality who said we shouldn't raise taxes on the richest 1 percent, even though they're now getting more than 20% of total income, because they now pay over 35% of total federal income taxes. Baloney. This misleading factoid ignores two large regressive taxes that hit lower and moderate-income Americans far harder than the those at the top:
(1) The Social Security payroll tax. It provides more than a third of all federal revenues and its surpluses for years have paid for all sorts of things in addition to Social Security. But it only applies to incomes up to a cap now set at $113,600.
(2) State and local taxes. They constitute 40 percent of total government revenues, but the poorest fifth of Americans pay an average combined state and local tax rate of 11%, while the richest 1 percent pay an average rate of 5.3%.
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