Tue
Oct 5 2010
02:41 pm
perceptions of wealth
By: michael kaplan

It's fine if reasonable people have different ideas about whether we should extend the Bush tax cuts for people making more than $250,000. Or think estate taxes are unfair. But when we have those debates, it's critical that everyone has a clear understanding of how things really are.

read about it here.

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ScruffyCity's picture

"We're becoming a

Submitted by ScruffyCity on Tue, 2010/10/05 - 10:52pm.

"We're becoming a plutocracy." -- Seems like we've been at that point for a while. This article makes a good point, though.

EricLykins's picture

Barry Ritholtz's The Big

Submitted by EricLykins on Wed, 2010/10/06 - 7:11pm.

Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture has picked this up, and in the comments someone asks "I would be interested to see the same charts regarding the tax burden. I’m sure the degree to which people underestimate the contribution of the top 20% would be even larger."

Wiki sez (although the source cited is from 03):

If the federal taxation rate is compared with the wealth distribution rate, the net wealth (not only income but also including real estate, cars, house, stocks, etc) distribution of the United States does almost coincide with the share of income tax - the top 1% pay 36.9% of federal tax (wealth 32.7%), the top 5% pay 57.1% (wealth 57.2%), top 10% pay 68% (wealth 69.8%), and the bottom 50% pay 3.3% (wealth 2.8%).[28]

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