Comments on: Income Breakdown in US

By: morrisdl

morrisdl — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:38:03 +0000

I am happy and confused by some of the comments. I am glad to see that several people understand that the current class warfare comments are un-American and totally fraudulent. If you took all the funds from all of the rich… you would barely cover this year’s budget deficient… and then whose wealth would you steal next year. It’s time to recognize that we have a different problem. We are faced with the task of addressing the misconception that the world owes you something. For maybe three generations, there has been the creeping fungal idea that success is bad, and that those that do succeed are evil. This is a strange turn about because, the United States of America was founded on individual freedoms and the concept that there are rewards for hard work, business savvy, and the risks associated with entrepreneurial effort. There are so many other ways to solve our current problems but, self-destructive attacks on the very people that have succeeded is wrong. It is better to analyze why the quality of life has started to decline, why businesses have left our country, and why we feel is necessary and proper to steal from the successful to coddle those to open take from others.

By: SR

SR — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:22:59 +0000

No amount of simplifying the tax code or raising taxes across the board will be enough as long as there are no checks and balances against any level of the government spending beyond its means. There must be some control in place to limit robbing from the future or diluting the value of currency.

By: tThomas Peacewalker

tThomas Peacewalker — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:34:08 +0000

When a government that is meant to be “Of ,by and for the PEOPLE” allows the few to thrive without any moral foundations on how they can best help those of lesser means to also thrive then that government stands in direct opposition to the oath of office they took upon entering that office. This behavior is thus a treasonable act against their fellow countrymen they are sworn to serve. They double this treason by scewing the ods in favor of the major corporations by allowing them to not pay taxes through the loophole in the tax codes and not punnishing them for shipping jobs overseas to further inprove their net income.

By: Heidi

Heidi — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:50:44 +0000

Can you help me find a chart or SOMETHING that shows the breakdown of the SOURCE of income of Americans? I heard that 1/3 of all U.S. income comes from government programs, but I can’t find any sort of document to prove it. Can anyone out there help me?

By: Michael Pavan

Michael Pavan — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:14:59 +0000

JP’s link does not give income breakdowns, instead it uses percentages of “Taxpayers with positive AGI (Adjusted Gross Income)” which not only makes it an ‘apples vs oranges’ comparison, but it is further skewed by the fact that not all income earners make enough to have a positive AGI.

A more telling comparison would be total taxes (state, sales, gas, excise, etc) vs total income, rather than Federal income taxes vs positive AGI.

Even total taxes vs total income does not take into consideration cost of living vs income, or Wealth Redistribution caused by ‘winners’ influencing legislators to change or tweak laws to benefit ‘winners’ at ‘losers’ expense.

By: JP

JP — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:19:11 +0000

Here’s the link: http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html
This particular chart was not created by the IRS, but the website does provide a link to the IRS charts from which the information was obtained.

By: Glen Lipka

Glen Lipka — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 20:01:50 +0000

JP, can you provide a link to that chart?

By: JP

JP — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:13:13 +0000

According to a chart produced by the IRS, in 2008 the top 1% of taxpayers earned 20% of the total adjusted gross income, but paid 38% of the total revenue collected through income taxes. Contrast this with the bottom 50% of taxpayers, who earned about 13% of total adjusted gross income, but paid less than 3% of total taxes. So the top 1% are paying about 2x their share based on equal division according to income, while the bottom 50% are paying less than 1/4 of their share. The top 1% pay an average tax rate of 23.27% while the bottom 50% pay an average tax rate of 2.59%. I think those at the bottom tend to only see how much the wealthy have left over, and ignore how much they’ve already given up. Don’t begrudge the wealthy their surplus, use it as inspiration for achieving your own financial success.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 01:57:03 +0000

@AJ . . the problem with this country is people like you that you assume that everyone wants a handout. Whereas in reality people just want to be treated fairly. There is no reason in this wealthy country that a child should die from an infected tooth because his parent had no health care coverage or money and medicaid doesn’t cover dental. Google it. This country needs well educated (high school) and healthy people to do the work so entrepreneurs have people to work for them. As my brother used to say, someone has to work at McDonald’s so we can eat there. Apply that saying to all the other low/lower wage jobs/non-college jobs.
When you look at all the surveys whether they be happiness, adult life span, infant mortality etc., the U.S. is never first and frequently pretty far down on the list.
This selfishness culture is not sustainable.

By: Glen Lipka

Glen Lipka — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:40:00 +0000

“Is that generous enough for you, or do you want a personal check?”

There is a Tip Jar on the right.

Optimism is good for the soul, so go for it. I wish you the best of luck.