'Buffett Rule' Not a Serious Response to Budgetary Problems

The rich already pay higher tax rates than middle-class Americans

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To Sean S.

The official tax data from the IRS website shows as part of their historical tax data that people making between 1 and 10 million dollars pay an effective tax rate of 25.4%, while people making greater than $10 million pay an effective tax rate of 22.5%. People making between $50,000 and $75,000 a year pay an effective tax rate of 7.7% (this data is federal income taxes only). For this specific tax, the wealthy pay 3 times the rate of the middle class. The data is incontrovertible. Even if you included social security taxes, the wealthy would pay twice the tax rate as the middle class. This is what they ACTUALLY pay, not their top tax rate. Stop believing the lies you hear from the left, and read the data yourself.

Scott P of CA 12:36PM July 19, 2012

One wonders whether the 1% having watched Downton Abbey, along with the rest of us, have received a Masterclass in Noblesse Oblige or.......will they continue to invest their tax breaks in jobs overseas rather than at home?

Prof M H Settelen of NY 9:48AM April 27, 2012

Alan D. Viard is attempting to mislead us. For the top 0.1% he includes Federal Income Tax, Social Security Payroll Tax and Other Taxes. For middle income earners he only includes Federal Taxes.

B. Chewdcough of NE 3:42PM April 16, 2012

The tax RATE is irrelevant, the wealthy, on average actually pay a MUCH lower percentage of tax.

sean s. of WI 3:36PM April 16, 2012

over 40% of Americans pay ZERO tax. There is the problem. Add undocumented workers and the amount is huge who pay no tax!.

... Asking the people who already pay huge tax bills to pay more when so many pay nothing is absurd.

Another reason America has declined so fast is this mentality that "FAIR" means someone else pays for it. That is the Obama way. Ignorance, followed by stupidity followed by disgrace and lies.

If you paid no tax this year.... YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!

The ONLY fair tax system is where EVERYONE pays the same percentage. FACT!

Eugene Hamptons of CA 10:38AM April 16, 2012

Much depends on how one defines "middle class." If you define the "middle class" as the middle 60% of the income spectrum, they only have 26% of the net worth. (The bottom 20% have 4%; the top 20% 70%. [Data source: FRB's 2007 SCF)

If you define the middle class as the 50% of us below the top 10%, the middle class has 32% of the net worth; the bottom 40% have 9%.

If you define the "middle class" as the 30% of us between the 60th and 90th percentiles, the middle class has 24% of the net worth; the bottom 60% have 16%.

And if you compare someone in the top .1% of the income spectrum with someone at the middle, you're looking at the situation of someone with a tiny cushion of assets to fall back on, someone who probably can't come up with $5,000 in a few weeks for an emergency.

Having said all this, I think we're looking at the wrong tax base. We ought to be putting far more of our taxation on that which the classical economists called LAND. It can't be hidden, its value can be ascertained -- it is, every day, in the markets -- and individuals/corporations/trusts didn't and can't create it. Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Henry George -- and even Milton Friedman -- recognized the wisdom of placing our taxes on these things first.

Water, electromagnetic spectrum, geosynchronous orbits, parking, clean air, oil, natural gas, coal, scarce minerals of many kinds -- all these are just, logical, efficient revenue sources for our common spending.

Natural public revenue.

And collecting them would likely reduce some of the large fortunes that have been accumulated by privatizing value we all are equally entitled to.

Fundamentally, confining the conversation to the income tax leaves us barking up the (wrong) tree, nibbling at its leaves, rather than finding the root of our problems and eradicating it.

LVTfan of CT 10:31AM April 16, 2012