Sunday, April 01, 2007

Times Were Tough a Few Years Ago

As you can see from the chart below, the top 1/10th of 1% of taxpayers in the USA had a very rough go between 2001-2003. And it was even worse for the top 1/100th of 1%. One can imagine that a few of the staff were let go...



HT: The Big Picture

4 comments:

Headless Blogger said...

You had me scared for a minute there, then I checked the calendar.

Where's you Blogs for Clifford badge?

Dad29 said...

The chart is a reality check for those who cry about the Onerous Tax Burden of the top .1%, or the Even More Onerous Tax Burden of the top .001%.

Headless Blogger said...

I think it is comparing the relative share of income, not income taxes. Income taxes would look worse. Another DNC class envy play from the NY Times.

Just once, I'd like to see them post the relative amount of benefits compensation compared over time for government versus private employees.

Dad29 said...

Well, yes and no. Actually, I'm of the opinion that the NYT feeds data to the DNC.

The chart shows dollar incomes averaging just about $5MM/year for the top .1% and about $20MM/year for the top .01% of taxpayers in the US.

Rush Limbaugh & Co. wail very loudly about the tax burden of these poor souls. Perhaps they pay a lot of taxes.

But then, I'd be happy to pay 60% of $5MM, or for that matter, 70% of $20MM. I could find a way to manage on the balance remaining.

By the way, BEA has a series of stats on govt-worker comp which is revealing. Don't know if it includes bennies...