Informed Comment reports in Taxes on the Rich: One-Sixth of What They Used to Be that,
According to a new IPS briefing paper, the richest .01 percent of Americans, about 33,000 lucky souls today, now pay just one-sixth of what they used to pay in tax, when measured as a percentage of their total wealth.
This suggests that “tax the rich” has a long way to go, but also that it may have a political opening.
On the other hand, we tend to tax income, and do not in the main do wealth taxes other than on real property, so to the extent this wealth increase is unrealized capital gains after a huge surge in the market it is maybe not surprising that there is such a large untaxed body of wealth out there.
Considering that this top percentile, and their attendant corporations, is the only group of Americans able to keep politicians in power and make them all millionaires without depending overly on the unwashed and fickle rabble, it’s no real surprise that the Tax Code payout loopholes have reached this level of deference to them.
I love when politicians pretend to be aghast at this situation, then pretend someone should be doing something about it. This story is just a “this just in: the sun rose this morning!” story. You can act surprised if you choose.