You hear it all the time - "Why should our tax dollars go to help these people when they don't contribute themselves? After all," the argument goes, "they pay no taxes. So they should get no benefits. They don't need tax breaks."
The irony is, this line of rhetoric is usually leveled at the poor (who actually do pay taxes in some form or other).
However, new data from the IRS shows this agrument could be used just as easily (and more accurately) against America's millionaires.
1,470 millionaires paid no taxes in 2009.
Meanwhile, the avearge American taxpayer's income fell by 6.1%.
Unemployment claims rose 19%.
And finally:
The number of 1040EZ returns -- the simplified tax form for filers who have no dependents, and whose taxable income is less than $100,000 -- fell by 23 percent between 2008 and 2009.
The decline in 1040EZs represents low-income taxpayers who lost their jobs and couldn't remain a part of the workforce, Kleinbard told The Huffington Post.
"What you're seeing is people at the bottom rung of the economic ladder being taken off the economic ladder entirely," Kleinbard said.
And while more and more Americans are doing their shopping now at dollar stores (in some instances, even bypassing the illusion of low-cost savings at stores like Wal-Mart - stores like Target and Trader Joes are now cheaper than Wal-Mart), the demand for luxury items is also increasing. If this sugessests growing stratification of class, that's because that's what's happening.
According to Jared Bernstein of the Center on Budget Policies and Priorities:
In fact, corporate profits aren't just back to their pre-recession peak: they've surpassed it. The figure shows profits/GDP over the last decade (through 2011q1-most recent data point). You can see that profits took a hit in the great Recession as did everyone else. But you can also see their sharp recovery, a trend which stands in stark contrast to jobs and incomes of most everybody else.
It's time we return to Eisenhower-era (he was a Republican) tax rates (a 90% tax rate on our richest) and increase the estate tax to 100%. And while we're at it, we need to raise corporate taxes and close tax shelters and loopholes so the richest companies in the world, companies like GE and Exxon/Mobil, companies posting the highest profits in the history of mankind, are actually paying more in taxes than the avearge American citizen.
We need to start arguing for more aggressive taxation on the rich, just to make sure we are all sharing in the sacrifice required by us in this economy that was tanked by the rich.
This is very good information and we are not likely to see these types of articles on main stream news. I suppose this is because the wealthy own the networks and do not want to let the cat out of the bag.
Posted by: D.C. Willis | August 05, 2011 at 12:55 PM