the last year for which the government will release such data

[this_side_up]

The Mobility Myth by BOB HERBERT
Published: June 6, 2005

........

As far as the Bush administration is concerned, the gap between the rich and the rest of us is not growing fast enough. An analysis by The Times showed the following:

"Under the Bush tax cuts, the 400 taxpayers with the highest incomes - a minimum of $87 million in 2000, the last year for which the government will release such data - now pay income, Medicare and Social Security taxes amounting to virtually the same percentage of their incomes as people making $50,000 to $75,000. Those earning more than $10 million a year now pay a lesser share of their income in these taxes than those making $100,000 to $200,000."

The social dislocations resulting from this war that nobody mentions have been under way for some time. But the Bush economic policies have accelerated the consequences and intensified the pain.

.....

The privileged classes, with the Bush administration's iron cloak of protection, avoid their fair share of taxes, are reluctant to pay an honest dollar for an honest day's work (the federal minimum wage is still a scandalous $5.15 an hour), refuse to fight in their nation's wars, and laugh all the way to their yachts.

.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/opinion/06herbert.html

[whistle]

1. Stop reporting, how so?

...their data are a matter of public records. Will the government now classify these records?

[this_side_up]

3. Beats me. That is all the

article says; does not give a basis or authoritiy for
refusing to release 01 through current and beyond.

Do i have it correct? This is how a police state
operates?

[RC]

2. Percentages or dollar amounts

[punpirate]

4. Percentages...

... although I suspect that through legal and illegal shelters, they could probably get that into the actual dollar amount range....

If you want to get a fix on the scams involved, pick up David Cay Johnston's Perfectly Legal. Be sure to take your blood pressure medicine first.

[oscar111]

5. 109 Trillion is total usa wealth

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/current/accessible/l5.htm

an interesting fact... for more on it, see demopedia, page called capital

{ oh, yes, and note...total is bottom line at fed page}

[punpirate]

6. Umm that's not real wealth...

... it's just money moving through accounts--including future liabilities. Real personal wealth for the latest time period is a small percentage of that $109 trillion figure. Keep in mind that there's over $75 trillion in paper floating around right now--in the form of unrealized derivatives--which can't be considered wealth until realized.

Any significant hiccup in the financial system and much of that $109 trillion is just paper which burns in one's hands. :)

Cheers.

[fasttense]

7. Like the SS the government owes me for having paid in these last 30 years.

"much of that $109 trillion is just paper which burns in one's hands."