At the Very Top(the top tenth of 1 percent) , a Surge in Income in '03

[papau]

Afraid I am in the bottom 99 percent of taxpayers, where income rose by slightly less than 2 percent, falling behind inflation of 2.3 percent. But do I complain about the 17.5% of all income that goes to the top 1% (1.3 million taxpayers who made at least $327,000) - nah - since the top tenth of 1 percent received 7.57% of all income - and almost all the increase 0.57% of all income that went to the top 1% was coming from the 0.47% increase coming from the top 0.1%. Do I laugh at these stats since it understates the income of the top end - investment dollars are not 100 pennies to the dollar "income - the rich get a discount in the reporting to the IRS - nah - because I know we are only 3rd in income disparity and still must overtake Mexico and Russia before we are truly run by the very, very, very rich. As My GOP friends note we are still "very progressive" since 129,000 tax filers pay more than 15 percent of all federal income taxes - excluding income tax collected as payroll tax, and ignoring investment income not taxed for the rich.



http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/business/05tax.html?oref=login

October 5, 2005
At the Very Top, a Surge in Income in '03
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

<snip> At the same time, the effective income tax rates paid by the top tenth of 1 percent fell sharply, declining at more than 10 times the rate reduction for middle-class taxpayers, the new report, by the Internal Revenue Service, showed.

Overall incomes rose by 2.7 percent in 2003, compared with the previous year, the I.R.S. said. A quarter of this increase went to the top tenth of 1 percent, the 129,000 taxpayers with reported incomes of $1.3 million or more, an analysis of the data showed.
<snip>
The top 10th of 1 percent paid almost 23.6 percent of their reported income in income taxes in 2003, down from just under 27 percent in 2002. That is a decline of 3.4 percentage points. For taxpayers in the bottom 80 percent, the effective tax rates fall by three-tenths of a percentage point or less.<snip>

The top tenth of 1 percent had more income in 2003 than the poorest third of taxpayers, a group with 330 times the number of people, analysis of the data showed. This is a sharp change from 1979, the earliest year in the I.R.S. report, when the total income of the poorest third of Americans exceeded that garnered by the top tenth of 1 percent by 2.5 to 1.<snip>

[beyurslf]

1. And yet, at the end of the article, they have to add this freeper nitwit

"Other data show that among major world economies, the United States in recent years has had the third-greatest disparity in incomes between the very top and everyone else. Only Mexico and Russia, among major economies, have greater disparity.
Bruce Bartlett, a fiscally conservative Republican tax expert who is writing a book on the tax system, said that he found it remarkable that "just 129,000 tax filers pay more than 15 percent of all federal income taxes."


What's so remarkable is that the top tenth of 1% of income earners make so much money that they could pay in 15% of all the taxes and still be disgustingly rich.

[papau]

2. True - Indeed DU's article "Poverty Increases as Incomes Decline" is

on point.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/09/21_poverty.html

Poverty Increases as Incomes Decline Under Bush

September 21, 2005
By Gene C. Gerard

The day after Hurricane Katrina hit, exposing much of the public to the tragic conditions of poverty in America, the Census Bureau quietly released its annual report entitled, "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States." In some respects, it provided a demonstrable backdrop to the pockets of poverty common to New Orleans and other cities. It also explained why, despite President Bush's assertion last month that, "Americans have more money in their pockets," many people aren't faring as well as they once did.

The report indicates that in 2004 there was no increase in average annual household incomes for black, white, or Hispanic families. In fact, this marks the first time since the Census Bureau began keeping records that household incomes failed to increase for five consecutive years. Since President Bush took office, the average annual household family income has declined by $2,572, approximately 4.8 percent.

Black families had the lowest average income last year, at $30,134. By comparison, the average income for white families was $48,977. The average pretax family income for all racial groups combined was $44,389, which is the lowest it has been since 1997. The South had the lowest average family income in 2004.

Interestingly enough, as the Economic Policy Institute notes in their analysis of the Census Bureau's report, not all families did poorly last year. Although the portion of the total national income going to the bottom 60 percent of families did not increase last year, the portion going to the wealthiest five percent of families rose by 0.4 percent. And while the average inflation-adjusted family income of middle-class Americans declined by 0.7 percent in 2004, the wealthiest five percent of families enjoyed a 1.7 percent increase.

Earnings also declined last year. This is despite the fact that Americans are working harder. Since 2000, worker output per hour has increased by 15 percent. Yet for men working full-time, their annual incomes declined 2.3 percent in 2004, down to an average of $40,798. This decrease was the largest one-year decline in 14 years for men. Women saw their earnings decrease by 1 percent, with an average income of $31,223, the largest one-year decline for women in nine years.<snip>

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Will someone tell Bruce that that those poor, poor, babies paying a

total of 15% of the income taxes, have income that is greater than that of 42,570,000 other Americans, combined!



Edited: correct myself

[FormerDittoHead]

4. ONE VERY IMPORTANT POINT SKEWED...

THE POINT isn't that they pay 15% of fed income taxes, the question is: HOW MUCH OF THE OVERALL INCOME DID THEY *MAKE* to pay 15%?

Watch what they DON'T say... Let's face it, if the upper .1% made LESS than 15% of overall income, THAT would be the story...