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0 pointsChrisLomont6y ago0 comments

>tax rates during or before the Reagan years

The tax rates people quote are not usually effective rates; they're marginal rates, and no one really paid them.

The Reagan tax cuts were revenue neutral - they cut the top marginal rates and removed loopholes. During one of them the effective rate on the rich increased slightly.

>When you look back at the last few decades you will see that republicans have decided that rich people should pay an ever decreasing share.

The middle class and poor have seen very big tax cuts. For example, here [1] are effective tax rates from the CBO for years 1979-2005.

The lower quintile went from 8% to 4.3%, effectively halving their tax rate. 2nd quintile 14.3 to 9.9%, 3rd 18.6 to 14.2, third 21.2 to 17.4, highest quintile 27.5 to 25.5.

The top 1% went from 37% to 31.2%.

So, you claim rich do not pay their share? What is their "share"? The lowest 20% pays 4.4%, the top 1% pays 31.2%.

[1] https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments...

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Ididntdothis6y ago

If you compare the share of taxes different groups are paying you also should compare the share of income they are receiving. You should also compare income growth of these groups over the last decades. It’s hard not to come to the conclusion that upper incomes did much better over that period compared to other groups.

ChrisLomontOP6y ago

>If you compare the share of taxes different groups are paying you also should compare the share of income they are receiving.

If someone pays 30% of income to tax, raising their income only means they're paying more dollars in tax. 30% is a ratio.

The rich also lost bigger chunks during the downturn.

The middle class is shrinking due to more moving up than down. That doesn't fit your narrative so well, but as far as I can tell, it's true, and has been true for some time. So of course their "share" is shrinking and the "rich" share is increasing - but then you might want to see what happened to the underlying people. After all, the set of rich people (and middle class, and poor) is always in flux.

If you really care to look at the numbers, the top 1% earns around 20% of all income, and pays around 37% of all taxes. The bottom 50% made 12% of all income, and paid 3% of all taxes.

So the top is paying almost 2x the share of taxes compared to their income than the average person, and the bottom half pays around 1/4x.

No matter how you slice it, the top do pay a lot in taxes. It's why the US is rated one of the most progressive tax structures in the OECD.

https://taxfoundation.org/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-...

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