We been hearing the incessant mantra from Wile E Obama (CEO of the ACME Economic Destruction Co.) and the rest of the libs that “the rich need to pay their ‘fair share’ of taxes” because income inequality is supposedly worse than ever. The Tax Foundation has a study that says this is not true.
The most recent published studies on income inequality use 2006 or 2007 as their end point, without fully correcting for the business cycle. … It is deeply misleading to talk about income inequality without properly taking into account the business cycle. Since the peak of the business cycle in 2007, personal incomes have collapsed to a degree not seen since the Great Depression. The most dramatic collapse has been in high incomes, as the most recent IRS data shows. For example, since 2007 the number of millionaires has dropped 40%, while income reported by millionaires has dropped in half. …
Figure 1 illustrates how the Great Recession has dramatically reduced measures of income inequality. It shows the share of income attributable to the top 1% of income earners from 1980 to 2009. The top 1% income share peaked in 2007 at 22.8% and declined precipitously to 16.9% by 2009. This is about where it was in 1996-1997.
Top 1 Percent Income Share
Also, the progressivity (basically the rate at which income of high earners is taxed) of the income tax code is higher than any time since Bill Clinton was president.
Progressivity of Income Tax Code
Just some more inconvenient facts for the liberals, who are working hard to make all outcomes equal for everybody.
From the Tax Foundation, via TaxProf Blog
