Are the Rich Paying More Than Their Share? Are Others Not Paying Their Fair Share? No, and No!

We always hear how the rich are being overburdened with taxes and how a progressive tax system is unfair to the rich. It's such a common talking point in the media that it is almost never questioned. Here's why it's completely false.

First, a few facts: 400 households have 50% of the wealth in the US. These top 400 billionaires own half of everything - money, property, ...Everything.

The rest of us get to share the remaining 50% of the wealth. That means that just 400 get one half, and 310 million share the other half.

But the rich pay a lot of taxes, right? ...Right?

The total amount of the income taxes collected from the billionaires who own half of everything in the US is less than 2%.

So who makes up for the rest? You guessed it ... we do.
The total income taxes paid by the poorest Americans who share the other half of the wealth is 98.2%!

In short, the richest people who own half of everything in America pay 1.8% of the income taxes, while the poorest who share the other half pay over 98% of the income taxes. That's so hard to imagine I made a picture.

The 'common wisdom' talking point that the rich are getting a bad deal is just plain wrong.

How come 40% of people don't pay any income taxes?

The short answer is: because they don't have anything. The poorest 40% of Americans have to share 0.02% of the wealth. That's not two percent, that's point zero 2 percent - or 0.0002.

To put this in perspective, if all the wealth in the US was $100, then the poorest 40%, or 124 million Americans, would split 2 cents between them. That's why they don't pay taxes. You can't get blood from a stone.

So the next time someone whines that it's not fair that 40% of people don't have to pay income tax, remember this picture, and tell him that he's looking the wrong way. Instead of looking down the income scale, he should be looking up the income ladder. Trying to tax those who don't have anything is stupid.

So who else doesn't pay taxes?

Those who have too little income to pay taxes are in good company. It turns out that some that have a lot of income - many in the Billions of dollars - don't pay taxes either.

Amazon(.com) and Boeing aircraft company have income tax rates less than 5%. That seems very low, except when compared to other corporations, they are suckers.

According to the Government Accountability Office, two out of three U. S. corporations paid no federal income tax from 1998 to 2005.

These include many huge corporations. ExxonMobil is the most profitable company in the history of the world. They pay no tax. Nothing. Zilch.

General Electric also pays no tax. But what makes this fact even more unbelievable is that they even get billions in "tax credits" back from the government. That's correct, they actually get money BACK!

So when you hear in the media about the rich being overtaxed, or how tough it is for the rich right now, you now know this 'common wisdom' is completely wrong.

It's always a good time to be rich!