"Leonard Martin" wrote in message
t...
In Europe ost of that heavy taxation falls on rich people. Are you one?
I'm
not. So we'd both be better off there. Especially given some statistics i
recently heard from a guy who's written a book on the American tax
system:
1) Persons in the top 1% of earners in the US now pay about 1/3, in real
dollars, of the percentage of the total tax "take" that they did in the
1970s. 2) The Alternative Minimum tax has never been indexed for
inflation
since it was passed in the 1970s, so it has increasingly done what it was
never meant to do, increase the portion of the tax take paid by the middle
to upper middle class (those earning $50,000 to $500,000 a year). 3) The
American income tax system is very good at tracking down and getting at
earned income, but poor at doing so for income from investments, and,
above all, income realized by corporations, and that is part of why rich
people pay so little. 4) The rest of why is because the top tax rates have
been cut again and again by Reagan, Bush1 and Bush2.

Leonard


Your data is incomplete. The top 5% of the people in this country pay about
50% of the total tax take. The top 50% of the people pay 90% of the total
tax take. So the government is already "taxing the rich". If you are going
to stimulate the economy, you can only cut taxes for those who are paying
taxes. Since half the people pay very little or even no taxes, you can't
reduce taxes there. The rich are paying their fair share and more.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

"Dee D. Flint" wrote:

Your data is incomplete. The top 5%
of the people in this country pay about
50% of the total tax take. The top 50%
of the people pay 90% of the total
tax take. So the government is already
"taxing the rich". (snip)


Your data is equally incomplete. What percentage of the nation's wealth is
controlled by those top 5% and 50%, and how does that compare to the
percentage of taxes they pay? I read recently that the top 10-20% control
80% of the nation's wealth. I'm going on what I vaguely remember (which is
why I asked), so don't quote me on these figures. However, if that is true,
that 50% you say they pay is rather small.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/