According to the conservative American Enterprise Institute, overall taxes in the United States are between 10 percent and 20 percent lower than they are in most other industrial nations.
The top income tax rate in the US (35%) is now the lowest it has been in twenty years.
The capital gains tax rate in the US (15%) is now the lowest it has been in over thirty years.
The wealthiest Americans earn most of their income from capital gains, so they pay a much lower tax rate than the middle class.
After-tax income for the middle class has actually declined over the last decade---while at the same time skyrocketing for the very rich.
This trend (the rich paying lower tax rates on higher income) has been going on pretty much uninterrupted since 1980.
In fact, they got rebates.
The wealthiest among us insist that they are entitled to pay a lower tax rate than struggling middle class families. The rich claim that most of the wealth created in America is supposed to flow to them. They believe that middle class family income has declined because middle class families don't work hard enough. Because they are lazy. Because they are socialists.
The wealthiest among us insist that they are entitled to pay a lower tax rate than struggling middle class families. The rich claim that most of the wealth created in America is supposed to flow to them. They believe that middle class family income has declined because middle class families don't work hard enough. Because they are lazy. Because they are socialists.
Profits are at record highs. Taxes are at record lows. Yet huge corporations have laid off millions of Americans while contributing zero dollars to help reduce the alarming national deficit. These same companies are sitting on trillions of dollars of uninvested capital, and still complaining that they are "over taxed" and "over regulated."
Is it any wonder why Wall Street is under siege?
Is it any wonder why Wall Street is under siege?
