NYT: How Expensive It Is to Be Poor

Re:NYT: How Expensive It Is to Be Poor by drzaiusapelord on Tuesday January 20, 2015 @11:58AM (#8917846)

>According to the study, in 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes

This is purposely misleading. Yes, the poor do get hit with state/local taxes (this may or may not include sales tax, gas tax, etc) but often will not pay federal tax. That's on top of various aid programs like food stamps, section 8 rent assistance, etc. These articles are really disingenuous statistics, often used to push an agenda.

A less politicized article here on who does and doesn't pay taxes:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/09/18/w...

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Re:NYT: How Expensive It Is to Be Poor by chc on Tuesday January 20, 2015 @12:08PM (#8917918)

While I agree that this article is frustratingly light on information, I don't think that one is any better, and it's certainly no less political. The article you linked isn't even attempting to quantify how much of their income people pay in taxes. Its primary goal is just to show that some comments by a particular politician reflected real statistics, not to analyze the actual lot of the poor in society.

The only part that even goes near the issue just seems to be summing tax rates, not considering how much of their money they actually have to pay (e.g. I keep more of my income than summing tax rates would lead you to believe because I have a 401k plan).

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Re:NYT: How Expensive It Is to Be Poor by tehwebguy on Tuesday January 20, 2015 @12:16PM (#8917978)

The WP article is really just a response to the uproar over Romney's comment in the 2012 election at a fundraiser about how ~"47% of the country doesn't pay tax", probably why they are focusing on "who pays" and not "how much"

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