What % of tax revenues should the rich (top 5%) pay?

[rocketpig]

HappySqurriel said:

rocketpig said:

I used to scream "flat tax! flat tax!" but it's just not a reasonable stance. With the wealthiest 1% controlling more and more of America every year, it's gone completely out of control. The gap between even the middle class and the wealthiest Americans is red shifting far more than it ever should.

When 5% of Americans own nearly 2/3rds of our wealth, something isn't right with this country. It's gone from "work hard and you'll succeed" to "put yourself further in debt every year to maintain an equivalent lifestyle to your parents".

OT: if they earn 33% of all income, they should probably be paying somewhere around 66% of all taxes. They're making all that money on the backs of the American public. Giving some of it back to maintain the infrastructure that supports them won't kill their pocketbooks.

With that said, the entire government structure should be aggressively sliced down so EVERYBODY pays less in taxes.

There are two (main) reasons why the "rich" are getting further ahead while the "poor" are falling further behind, and neither is that the "rich" pay too little taxes ...

First and foremost, the government is being run to benefit large corporations and unions; and this is coming at the expense of small business and individuals. I could go into detail on this, but (essentially) the problem is that the tax code, regulations, oversight, and government grants are mostly set up to give large corporations a massive advantage over the small business man.

Secondly, for the past several decades inflation has been under-reported and the higher your income is the more likely you were able to get a raise at the real rate of inflation; while poorer individuals tended to have difficulty getting raises that matched the reported rate of inflation. A 1% or 2% discrepancy may not seem like that much, but compounded over 20 or 30 years it makes a massive difference.

Absolutely. This isn't a one-headed monster that can easily be slain but it IS all tied together. Over the past 40 years, the government has eschewed any semblance of working for the average American in favor of reducing taxes on the wealthy and giving corporations massive loopholes through which to pay their workers less and less every year. Unions are just as bad and don't look out for their workers; they work to keep themselves in power.