How the Rich Soaked the Rest of Us

Wednesday 02 March 2011
by: Richard D. Wolff,
t r u t h o u t | News Analysis


How the rich soaked the rest of us: The astonishing story
of the last few decades is a massive redistribution of
wealth, as the rich have shifted the tax burden.

Over the last half-century, the richest Americans have
shifted the burden of the federal individual income tax
off themselves and onto everybody else. The three
convenient and accurate Wikipedia graphs below show the
details. The first graph compares the official tax rates
paid by the top and bottom income earners. Note especially
that from the end of the Second World War into the early
1960s, the highest income earners paid a tax rate over 90
percent for many years. Today, the top earners pay a rate
of only 35 percent. Note, also, how the gap between the
rates paid by the richest and the poorest has narrowed. If
we take into account the many loopholes the rich can and
do use far more than the poor, the gap narrows even more.

One conclusion is clear and obvious: the richest Americans
have dramatically lowered their income tax burden since
1945, both absolutely and relative to the tax burdens of
the middle income groups and the poor.

for the rest of this, with graphics, go to
http://www.truth-out.org/how-rich-soaked-rest-us68155

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate