Are high-income taxpayers the enemy?

Sacramento Bee ^ | 11/29/11 | Dan Walters

[SmithL]

It's difficult to divine exactly what the Occupy demonstrators in California cities and on university campuses are protesting.

...

We needn't weep for the wealthy; they can take care of themselves. But their incomes are much more volatile than those of us who earn paychecks because they are much more dependent on capital gains from stocks and other investments, and when recession hits, their income streams decline sharply.

That's where the effect on college fees comes into the equation.

California has a particularly progressive personal income tax system, which means that it's extraordinarily dependent on high-income taxpayers.

In fact, the top 1 percent of taxpayers generate about half of the state's income taxes, and income taxes constitute about 60 percent of the state's general fund revenues.

...

Logically, therefore, those campus demonstrators should be praying for the much-despised one-percenters to enjoy big increases in their taxable incomes

[NativeSon]

Logically, therefore ...

Logic is town that bus never stops at

[Roninf5-1]

It doesn't matter how many millions you have, if you pay any taxes at all you aren't really "rich". You aren't an Insider. You're a nobody.

It's not the Rich vs. Poor. It's the Makers vs. the Takers. You have Takers at the bottom of society and Takers at the very top of society. They have one thing in common. They don't work for their ill gotten loot. They use the power of the State to extract wealth from the Makers.

[Nifster]

Sounds like you need to get a tent and go occupy something

Rich people make jobs for folks——like it or don’t

[Ditter]

What a strange convoluted vision you have of how things work in the real world. We own an business and employ lots of people and we pay HUGE taxes. Where do we fit into your world view?

[familyop]

"Are high-income taxpayers the enemy?"

Government employees: put big revenues into 'em, and little revenues come out.