I spent a fair amount of time reading the newspaper yesterday, a Sunday tradition for many people. One thing I notice is the increasing villification of the poor - people with low incomes or no incomes. And there are certainly a lot more of those than there were a couple decades ago. This category also includes a significant, and growing, percentage of those at retirement age. I guess this is the "when attacked, counterattack" strategy of a certain wealthier segment of the population. They don't like the idea of paying more taxes, and feel entitled to pay a much lower rate for return on capital investments than most people pay for return on their labor (i.e., salaries).
A letter to the editor complained that it was just so unjust for the wealthiest among us to pay more, when 50% percent of the population pay "no taxes at all." This is another of those "Big Lies" that political hucksters of all stripes delight in. And I am just so darned sick of these kinds of lies and half truths!
In fact, virtually every adult in this nation pays taxes. If you buy things, you pay taxes. Even here in Delaware, where there is no sales tax, merchants still pay a percentage of their sales to the state as a tax, so the consumer is just paying less directly. There are actually a lot of these kinds of indirect taxes that consumers ultimately pay for, in the forms of fees and taxes on manufacturers and service providers. Without customers, these companies don't contribute to the public till. And it is an indisputable fact that the poor pay a disproportionately high percentage of their income as sales and related taxes, direct and indirect. Lower income folks, by necessity, have to pay out most of what they make for goods and services they need to survive. Rent, food, clothing, transportation costs. There's very little left over.
The poor usually pay property taxes, too, which are important for funding our schools and city and local services, such as police and fire protection. Property owners know they pay these, but renters do too, just indirectly. When property taxes go up, so does the rent. Even people who live with family or friends contribute to property taxes if they pay their host a share of the rent or mortgage payment. Again, the wealthy generally pay a much, much smaller proportion of their income in property taxes than do those with lower incomes.
Even the taxes for Social Security and Medicare, that percentage taken out of each worker's paycheck, or paid directly by the self-employed, represents a much bigger percentage of income for the poor, compared to the wealthy.
The better-off, especially the wealthy, are able to put away some or most of their income, rather than having to spend it on food, housing, transportation and services. They typically invest it, and some have argued that the growing disproportionality of wealth in the country, leading to a bunch of wealthy folks looking for high yield places to park their "extra income," actually fueled the very risky housing and related financial investment bubble, the bursting of which did so much to cripple our economy.
Anyway, if we oldsters are in a low income bracket, and pay little or no federal or state income tax, it doesn't mean we're not doing our share. If you could see the percentage of your meager income that actually goes to direct taxes, as well as the indirect taxes and fees paid by retail and service vendors that you pay, not to mention real estate taxes on your housing, you'd probably be surprised. You may actually be paying a higher percentage of your income in taxes than people who have incomes far, far higher than yours.
A letter to the editor complained that it was just so unjust for the wealthiest among us to pay more, when 50% percent of the population pay "no taxes at all." This is another of those "Big Lies" that political hucksters of all stripes delight in. And I am just so darned sick of these kinds of lies and half truths!
In fact, virtually every adult in this nation pays taxes. If you buy things, you pay taxes. Even here in Delaware, where there is no sales tax, merchants still pay a percentage of their sales to the state as a tax, so the consumer is just paying less directly. There are actually a lot of these kinds of indirect taxes that consumers ultimately pay for, in the forms of fees and taxes on manufacturers and service providers. Without customers, these companies don't contribute to the public till. And it is an indisputable fact that the poor pay a disproportionately high percentage of their income as sales and related taxes, direct and indirect. Lower income folks, by necessity, have to pay out most of what they make for goods and services they need to survive. Rent, food, clothing, transportation costs. There's very little left over.
The poor usually pay property taxes, too, which are important for funding our schools and city and local services, such as police and fire protection. Property owners know they pay these, but renters do too, just indirectly. When property taxes go up, so does the rent. Even people who live with family or friends contribute to property taxes if they pay their host a share of the rent or mortgage payment. Again, the wealthy generally pay a much, much smaller proportion of their income in property taxes than do those with lower incomes.
Even the taxes for Social Security and Medicare, that percentage taken out of each worker's paycheck, or paid directly by the self-employed, represents a much bigger percentage of income for the poor, compared to the wealthy.
The better-off, especially the wealthy, are able to put away some or most of their income, rather than having to spend it on food, housing, transportation and services. They typically invest it, and some have argued that the growing disproportionality of wealth in the country, leading to a bunch of wealthy folks looking for high yield places to park their "extra income," actually fueled the very risky housing and related financial investment bubble, the bursting of which did so much to cripple our economy.
Anyway, if we oldsters are in a low income bracket, and pay little or no federal or state income tax, it doesn't mean we're not doing our share. If you could see the percentage of your meager income that actually goes to direct taxes, as well as the indirect taxes and fees paid by retail and service vendors that you pay, not to mention real estate taxes on your housing, you'd probably be surprised. You may actually be paying a higher percentage of your income in taxes than people who have incomes far, far higher than yours.
