18 Comments

A sober-minded and fair analysis.

This progressivity is partially why I am skeptical of the "soak the rich" mentality so prevalent on the left. Especially when compared to other OECD nations, the U.S. has one of the most progressive tax systems in the developed world.

You can have a single-payer health system, and maybe free college and some other things, but the belief that it will all be financed by the 25,000 richest households in America just doesn't hold water.

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Is there a chart somewhere that does this for "share of total tax dollars paid"? I've seen charts to that effect from libertarian/conservative leaning sources (eg https://taxfoundation.org/publications/latest-federal-income-tax-data/ in the section "High-Income Taxpayers Paid the Majority of Federal Income Taxes") on federal income taxes and I'd love to see something similar that incorporates other tax data as well.

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I don't mean to be a skeptic, but most people who present analysis like this are more transparent about their work. It would help if you more specifically explained how you derived these figures.

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It's annoying when people torture a data set to make whatever point they want, then say, "well actually . . .". Boo.

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It's annoying when people torture a data set to make whatever point they want, then say, "well actually . . .". Boo.

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I love this I would love to share it with some of my friends. How does sharing work through this site? If I share it with them as a subscriber is there anyway for them to read it?

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Josh, are the general obligation bonds issued by states not used to borrow to balance their budgets? Are the revenue bonds not more borrowing to bridge the deficit spending?

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I could use help with language around countering when someone comes with the argument of “Jeff Bezos didn’t pay anything in federal taxes,” is this claim just factually wrong? Or are say the “top 0.01 percent able to avoid paying any taxes?”

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