Quote:


We need distributive justice.



Coke's numbers are actually right. Almost all income taxes are paid by "the rich", and they already pay substantially more than their part of the income pie.

What he didn't mention is that the bottom 40% pay zero taxes or less (receive a tax credit check from the IRS). The poor pay no taxes and often get paid for being poor, and this reaches well into middle class.

The US tax system already substantially redistributive, so much so that we _have_ to have those evil rich people to pay taxes or everyone else takes a huge hit to make up for it.

(put another way: if it weren't for those rich guys making over $250,000, everyone else would see their taxes literally double to make up for it)

_That_ in turn is important because those rich guys have been wiped out in the recession, losing over half of all they had. That suggests to me that as a group there's less money to pay for the federal budget, and if they can only half as much as they could a year ago, then everyone else has to pay 25% more to make up for it.

In short, unless you want to start taxing the poor and increasing taxes on the middle class you better start hoping that the rich get richer. As it is I'm worried that the recession has wiped out so much of the rich taxpayer class that there are significant tax increases coming for the middle class as the only ones who can fund all of Obama's spending.
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"If they can't picture me with a knife, forcing them to strip in an alley, I don't want any part of it. It's humiliating." - windsock