Super Rich Tax Cheats

[unusualmusic_lj_archive]

Super Rich Tax Cheats (Accompanying Blurb)

It is surprising that after the string of economic scandals over the last decade—from Enron to the housing crisis—we still know so little about how America’s wealthiest manage to avoid paying taxes, depriving the treasury of billions in money that could be used to enhance public welfare. Now, America has never taken well to faintly socialist notions. That the tiny percentage of Americans who hold onto 22 percent of its wealth should contribute more to the public coffers than those who earn significantly less is heresy.

But what about the fact that the wealthiest citizens, the Warren Buffets, pay less in taxes than their secretaries? In fact, Buffet himself had 15 of 18 employees in his office fill out a survey about how much they pay every year in taxes. Buffet discovered that he paid a total of 17.7 percent while the office average was 32.9.

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Income Inequality Hits Post-WWII Record: Richest 1 Percent Of Americans Taking Home Almost A Quarter Of The Pie

New IRS figures out today reveal that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americas earned 21.2 percent of all income in 2005, the Wall Street Journal reports. That's up sharply from 19 percent in 2004, and surpasses the previous high of 20.8 percent in 2000, at the beak of the previous bull market in stocks.


The IRS only started keeping these kinds of figures, which include capital gains, in 1986, so there's some guessing involved. But academics say the rich haven't gotten such a big slice of the pie since the Roaring '20s.

Meanwhile, the median tax filer's income fell 2 percent between 2000 and 2005, to $30,881. Median, of course, means half of Americans earn less than that.

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Comments

[romaine24.livejournal.com]

Please do not post vids that come live when a page is displayed. The pause is not working. I cannot get it to stop.

I do appreciate your posts and find them extremely informative.

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

Thanks for letting me know. I converted the video to a link. Does that help?

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

At least, it will appear as a link on your friends page.

[romaine24.livejournal.com]

Actually it comes through on the link. Persistent little bugger. It's okay. What I did was just filter out your lj name *just for today* :)

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

It comes through the link??? Sure it wasn't the other 2 videos that I have just switched to links?

[romaine24.livejournal.com]

thanks so much. It did work!

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

No prob!