Re:Our Broken Economy, in One Simple Chart
by mikestew on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @03:48PM
(#14961782)
For crying out loud, the top 20% of earners shoulder 84% of the tax burden of the federal government[1].
A few years ago I went to a seminar put on by Fidelity about trading options. A person asked about minimizing tax liability. The trader who was doing the seminar said something that stuck with me since: "if I'm being taxed, I'm making money. So I don't worry about the tax burden."
All your stat shows is that the top 20% are making the money, and the rest aren't.
As for an answer to your question, you should know that it isn't as simple as a single number. For instance, why come about October do I no longer make Medicare and Social Security payments? Of all people more capable of taking that hit, I instead get a discount. Everyone else gets taxed on every dollar they make, but myself (a relatively wealthy person in that 20%), I don't pay Medicare and SS tax on about 25% of my income. Why? I make a pretty good sum on capital gains every year. Why is that taxed at a lower rate than income, when all I did (at most) was click a mouse button a few times?
IOW, any single sentence solution for a complex situation, be it the Middle East or taxation, should be ignored.
A few years ago I went to a seminar put on by Fidelity about trading options. A person asked about minimizing tax liability. The trader who was doing the seminar said something that stuck with me since: "if I'm being taxed, I'm making money. So I don't worry about the tax burden."
All your stat shows is that the top 20% are making the money, and the rest aren't.
As for an answer to your question, you should know that it isn't as simple as a single number. For instance, why come about October do I no longer make Medicare and Social Security payments? Of all people more capable of taking that hit, I instead get a discount. Everyone else gets taxed on every dollar they make, but myself (a relatively wealthy person in that 20%), I don't pay Medicare and SS tax on about 25% of my income. Why? I make a pretty good sum on capital gains every year. Why is that taxed at a lower rate than income, when all I did (at most) was click a mouse button a few times?
IOW, any single sentence solution for a complex situation, be it the Middle East or taxation, should be ignored.