On 8/4/2011 4:44 PM, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:40:59 -0400, Jack
wrote:

On 8/4/2011 1:28 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:
On Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:42:50 -0400, Jack Stein wrote:

ie, the bottom 50% of wage
earners pay 2.7% of income taxes, the top 50% pay 97.3%.

That sounds great till you look at the other half of the statistics. The
bottom 50% have 13% of the income, the top 50% have 87%. If you add SS
taxes to that, the bottom half pay a higher percentage than the top half.

That sounds stupid! The bottom 50% has 50% of the wages? The top 50%
has the other 50%? If the bottom 50% had 13% of the income, they
wouldn't be the bottom 50% but the bottom 13%?

Jack, that's "50% of us, the low-wage earners, make only 13% of the
money and the top half make a whole lot more. The top half ends up
paying the bulk of income tax, dollarwise." Is that easier, cher?
(Whoooeee, dat smarts!)

No. It's not "us", it's based on wages.

Tax Year 2008
Percentiles Ranked by AGI

AGI Threshold on Percentiles
Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid

% by AGI AGI % paid
=================================
Top 1% $380,354 38.02

Top 5% $159,619 58.72

Top 10% $113,799 69.94

Top 25% $67,280 86.34

Top 50% $33,048 97.30

Bottom 50% $33,048 2.7

Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service

So, the bottom 50% earned an average of 33K and paid 2.7 of that in
earned income taxes. How could the bottom 13% pay 13% if the bottom 50%
only paid 2.7%?

As far as mandatory SS pension fund payments (SS Tax/Ponzi scheme) it is
currently a flat fee of 12-13% of income up to $106,000. Income above
106K is not subject to SS tax.

I like flat taxes,

I kinda do, too, but you know that they'd end up making us pay even
-more- than we are now, don't you?

I know that, at least if you are in the bottom 50%, you will pay more.
You are not paying your fair share now, that needs fixed. A flat tax
means everyone pays the same rate, the more you make, the more you pay,
the less you make the less you pay.

They would replace the IRS
clusterf*ck with an even better money-bringer so they could go spend
even more of our hard-earned money on useless crap.sigh

I don't think so. I think if everyone paid the same rate, when the
government tried to cluster f*ck one group, they would cluster f*ck the
whole group, and share the pain would finally mean something, and it
would be harder for dick heads paying little or no taxes to vote
themselves a raise.

--
Jack
I measured twice and it's still too short!
http://jbstein.com