The information that I posted before was slightly wrong. From the most recent numbers available, it turns out that the bottom 50% of all taxpayers pay a grand total of 4% of total taxes, not the 5% I stated.
By contrast, those in the top 5% (earning more than $120,846 in 1999) paid 55.5% of the taxes. So, in effect you have 1/10th as many people paying 11 times as much in taxes.
Wealth redistribution is alive and well in America. For each of the past several years, my wife and I have paid over $40,000 a year in taxes only to be called "greedy" for thinking that figure is too high. I resent how those who want to take ever increasing shares of our income for themselves and their pet projects aren't being called "greedy."
"He who robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul."
Off Topic » in reply to Re: It's very different
Here are some numbers drawn from IRS reports