On average, the lowest-income 20 percent of taxpayers face a state and local tax rate nearly 60 percent higher than the top 1 percent of households, according to a study by the Institue on Taxation and Economic Policy.
The nationwide average effective state and local tax rate paid by residents to their home states is 11.3 percent for the lowest-income 20 percent of individuals and families, 10.5 percent for the middle 20 percent, and 7.2 percent for the top 1 percent.
Shocked. I’m shocked I tell you, shocked!
Every time I see news like this, I remember that Leona Helmsley quote:
We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes.
Wealth inequality is one of the legs of discontent that will tear this nation apart in the next 30 years. We are starting to hit Depression level inflation on food and housing, and it won’t be long before a bunch of angry parents can’t feed their kids.
I have a protest bag already packed and waiting.
So-o it seems that if I offer to replace all the plethora of taxes with the same income tax for everybody, I’d be offering an improvement even in leftist terms. Good to know.
And you know, that’s how any complexity works in bureaucracies and central regulation. It gets bent by interests and power, because those are easier to focus on every small part, and public attention is not.
By my quick math, about 25% of the U.S. population lives in states and territories with neutral to progressive tax burdens.
