tax fudgation
in response to the hypothetical buffett tax, the tax foundation published some numbers.
link the accompanying text implies the rich are indeed paying their fair share of taxes. end of discussion, right? heh. no. course you knew that was coming. first, "the rich" means people with large bank accounts. generally, they also have large incomes. but income is a poor predictor for wealth. and it certainly isn't proportional. which is a fundamental implicit assumption when using income tax rates as a proxy for wealth. it's a very effective scam. and you're the mark. second, the tax foundation only shows income tax. just for fun i estimated the payroll taxes of each group. and the total tax rate became remarkably flat. every group was between 20% and 26%. which is a result very different from only looking at income tax. the lowest incomes are effectively paying the same total tax rate as the highest incomes. some think a flat tax is more fair. i'd agree that a flat tax on *wealth* after a sizable deduction would be more fair than a progressive tax on income which would be more fair than a flat tax on income. which is what we have. not fair.