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As I read the eloquent letter written by our fine upstanding linguist, I was sucked in. I am a middleclass father of 3 that works 2 jobs just to stay afloat. I never have extra money to go and do the “fun” things in life…I don’t even have cable! It looks as though the author of this article has done his homework with all the numbers and quotes. My goodness he sounds smart. But let’s look at common sense for a moment and get back off the land of the loonies. I went to the oracle, otherwise known as Google, and asked, “Who pays the most taxes?” From About.com, Robert Longlev writes, “In 2002 the latest year of available data, the top 5 percent of taxpayers paid more than one-half (53.8 percent) of all individual income taxes…” And he continues to say, “The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 33.7 percent of all individual income taxes in 2002. This group of taxpayers has paid more than 30 percent of individual income taxes since 1995. Moreover, since 1990 this group’s tax share has grown faster than their income share.” Now where have I heard that 1% number before? Oh yes, that pesky same 1% that earned all of that extra money. But wait…there is more! “Taxpayers who rank in the top 50 percent of taxpayers by income pay virtually all individual income taxes.” Now who is this guy and where does he get his info? Let me see, oh yes here it is…Source: U.S. Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis. For those of you still not getting it, let me lay it out in words that can actually be understood. Those that make a ton of money, pay all of the taxes. We who do not make a ton of money really don’t pay ANY taxes after our precious rebates. So while people complain about the rich getting all of the breaks and the poor getting screwed, the American Dream is being tarnished. Come on people! This is America. We work hard, we strive to make money. Some of us make it, and others of us struggle. It is life. And for all of the writers that love to stir the pot, why don’t you do something? I could be wrong, but I am willing to bet my measly salary that our wonderful artist of words that wrote “The Great Depression: The Sequal” makes more than his average reader. Maybe he should start his dream of equilibrium by forking over a chunk of his salary to you his faithful reader!
