fact angles
one million dollars sounds like a lot of money. in reality, it's not. it is however, a convenient line in the sand between "rich" and "not rich". only 1% of americans have a net worth of $1 million dollars or more. yet this 1% of people control some 40% of the nation's wealth. in absolute terms that's some $25 trillion dollars. if you assume the top 1% of the wealth holders are also the top 1% of the income earners, which is probably pretty safe, probably, they paid some 27% of the total federal taxes. which sounds like a lot if you look at from the perspective of 1 person carrying the load of 27. ouch. now let's look at those facts from a different angle. 40% of the assets of america are doing 27% of the work of running america. hrm. that doesn't seem quite so right any more. let's look at it a third way. 73% of all federal taxes are paid by people who really can't afford it because they're not rich.