Re:U.S. forgives 40k student loans
by ch4s3 on Thursday April 21, 2022 @11:33AM
(#31110801)
You're reading that chart incorrectly, it was like 5% in the 40s and 50s not 80%. I meant historically tiny, and should have been clear, though it is larger now. Yes, payroll tax is regressive, but only 6.2% and the cap rises every year.
> it's readily apparent that the overall Federal income tax system is regressive
It clearly is not, as 57% Americans paid no income tax last year (up from ~47%), and 19% (up from 17%) paid neither income tax nor payroll tax. So somewhere in the neighborhood of 38% of Americans paid payroll tax but not income tax meaning their federal tax burden was quite low. If you roll in the payroll tax the effective federal rates are still quite progressive[1]. Even Piketty and Saez note that the tax system when everything is accounted for is still progressive in the US[2] and they're accounting for wealth accumulation and not just income. If you want to include things like Piketty and Saez, you should probably include transfers, entitlements, and welfare, which makes the system look even more progressive in total. There's a good wikipedia article on the topic [3].
I'm not sure how you can argue against the conclusions of the CBO, Saez and Piketty who are the most prominent socialist economists in the world right now, and the Brookings Institute. Basically everyone who studies the topic disagrees with you, including people who greatly disagree with one another.
> it's readily apparent that the overall Federal income tax system is regressive
It clearly is not, as 57% Americans paid no income tax last year (up from ~47%), and 19% (up from 17%) paid neither income tax nor payroll tax. So somewhere in the neighborhood of 38% of Americans paid payroll tax but not income tax meaning their federal tax burden was quite low. If you roll in the payroll tax the effective federal rates are still quite progressive[1]. Even Piketty and Saez note that the tax system when everything is accounted for is still progressive in the US[2] and they're accounting for wealth accumulation and not just income. If you want to include things like Piketty and Saez, you should probably include transfers, entitlements, and welfare, which makes the system look even more progressive in total. There's a good wikipedia article on the topic [3].
I'm not sure how you can argue against the conclusions of the CBO, Saez and Piketty who are the most prominent socialist economists in the world right now, and the Brookings Institute. Basically everyone who studies the topic disagrees with you, including people who greatly disagree with one another.
[1] https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/are-federal-ta...
[2] https://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/piketty-saezJEP07taxprog.pdf
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressivity_in_United_States...