Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Riffing on a Theme

Riffing on the theme of taxing the rich, some perspective may be useful. According to the IRS, the 400 richest people averaged $263 million in annual income and collectively had total income in 2006 of $105 billion.  We can probably all agree that these folks are rich. The interesting point, though, is that if you taxed them all at 100% - took away all their money - it would pay for less than 10% of this year's $1.3 trillion deficit, never mind each of the next 9 years which are projected to be in the same range. The problem is not income. The problem is spending. It is so much more fun, however, to deflect blame and ignore the cure.

 www.forbes.com/2009/01/29/irs-high-income-personal-finance-taxes_0129_wealthy_americans.html

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