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In another thread a conservative poster made this argument...
That makes little sense to me. Not even as a matter of fairness but as a matter of simple math.
The total Adjusted Gross Income of the country is about $11 trillion. The top 50% has about $10 trillion and the bottom 50% had about $1 trillion. We spend, as a country, about $1.5 trillion in income taxes. About 97% of that is covered by the top 50% and the remaining 3% by the bottom 50%.
My question is how much would the bottom 50% have to pay for it to be fair?
Nominally speak, half of $1.5 trillion is about $750 billion. That means the bottom 50% would have to pay 75% of their combined income to cover half the country's tax burden.
Keep in mind that to be in the bottom 50%, you have to make less than $40,000 a year.
So are the folks who are making $40,000 a year "living off the government teet" if they are not contributing $30,000 a year (75%) to income taxes? That is how I interpret the quote above. The poster is claiming that those who pay little or no taxes are a burden.
I can't figure out what a "fair share" tax for the bottom 50% would look like to conservatives. The top 50% will always pay more, which means no matter how much the bottom 50% pays, it will never be enough.
Remember, there are people in that 44% who don't earn money at all. They are on the Gov teat to begin with
[...]
The point is, they pay Nada, zero, zilch and zelda towards the militarily...(protection)
That makes little sense to me. Not even as a matter of fairness but as a matter of simple math.
The total Adjusted Gross Income of the country is about $11 trillion. The top 50% has about $10 trillion and the bottom 50% had about $1 trillion. We spend, as a country, about $1.5 trillion in income taxes. About 97% of that is covered by the top 50% and the remaining 3% by the bottom 50%.
My question is how much would the bottom 50% have to pay for it to be fair?
Nominally speak, half of $1.5 trillion is about $750 billion. That means the bottom 50% would have to pay 75% of their combined income to cover half the country's tax burden.
Keep in mind that to be in the bottom 50%, you have to make less than $40,000 a year.
So are the folks who are making $40,000 a year "living off the government teet" if they are not contributing $30,000 a year (75%) to income taxes? That is how I interpret the quote above. The poster is claiming that those who pay little or no taxes are a burden.
I can't figure out what a "fair share" tax for the bottom 50% would look like to conservatives. The top 50% will always pay more, which means no matter how much the bottom 50% pays, it will never be enough.