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To: RangerM

I did.
here’s what I found.
Hauser’s”law” is as preposterous a misrepresentation as the infamous “Laffer Curve.” Conservatives have been trying to prove the “trickle down” and (tax cuts and subsidies will “stimulate”)”job creators” myths for far too long now, and in the face of logic and historic fact to the contrary in both cases.

Economists have been “laffing” at both pseudoeconomic theories since the Right Wing “Think Tanks” and conservative administration advisors *coughpropagandamills* released them in Right Wing publications like Murdoch’s wsj.

“...this is beyond awful. It confuses what may be a desire of the American people not to be taxed beyond 19.5% of GDP, under a variety of tax systems, with an unfounded claim that the American people could not be taxed at a higher rate (on GDP) than 19.5%.

Specifically, it ignores the base-broadening that has accompanied much of the reduction in the top marginal tax rate. It ignores the increasing contribution to revenues played by the payroll tax, which has nothing to do with the top marginal tax rate. It is not robust against the standard Laffer curve critique—it will eventually not hold up for a sufficiently low top marginal tax rate. And the list could be extended. These shortcomings are obvious to anyone who takes just a moment to consider the claim, and yet the Wall Street Journal publishes it. They have no one to blame but themselves for the low regard in which they are being held. “

http://www.angrybearblog.com/2010/11/hausers-law-is-extremely-misleading.html

http://seekingalpha.com/article/78256-lying-with-charts-wsj-edition

http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/andrew-samwick/329/beyond-awful-wall-street-journal

http://elidourado.com/blog/debunking-hausers-law/

I believe if you KEEP soaking the rich, eventually they will run out of ways to cheat the tax laws - or even better, JUST LEAVE ALTOGETHER and make room for businessmen who are honest and responsible. In fact, given the mess they’ve made of the American quality of life, we need to claw back as much as humanly possible by OUTLAWING and POLICING those tax havens. This GROSS inequality will eventually cause the noted behavior in other Banana Republics - violent revolt and lawless chaos.


58 posted on 08/16/2011 10:46:04 PM PDT by rhytonen
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To: rhytonen
I'm not certain exactly how your examples exactly "debunked" anything, considering there wasn't (as far as I can tell) a definitive relationship that could be established that corrects for economic trends. Sure, there have been times of greater and lesser revenues (as a percentage of GDP), but the percentage has hovered around 20%. Sure, you can raise tax rates today, and gain revenues tomorrow, until the economy adjusts to the new paradigm, and revenues decline the day after.

Heres some more figures for you to chew on.

Income taxes are only a portion of the taxes Americans pay to the Federal government. Americans pay income, payroll, excise, and corporate taxes to the Federal government.

According to the CBO (in 2007)..

The TOTAL effective Federal individual tax rate (all personal taxes including payroll/excise/corporate) is as follows....

Lowest Quintle 4.0%
Second Quintile 10.6%
Third Quintile 14.3% (This is where the median would be)
Fourth Quintile 17.4%
Fifth (Highest) Quintile 25.1%

Average for all quintles is 20.4%.



Here's something that many people aren't aware of......

Most people are aware that income taxes are paid by those in the top half of all households, but also believe the proportion of taxes paid by all quintiles evens out once you include payroll (and other) taxes.

This is not true.

According to the CBO (in 2007) the percentage of all federal taxes paid including income/payroll/corporate/excise taxes is as follows:

Lowest Quintle 0.8%
Second Quintile 4.4%
Third Quintile 9.2%
Fourth Quintile 16.5%
Fifth (Highest) Quintile 68.9%

Top 10% 55.0%
Top 5% 44.3%
Top 1% 28.1%

See that? That means the top 40% of all households in America pay 85.4% of all Federal taxes (NOT just income taxes). The Top 10% pays more than half.



How about Social insurance (a.k.a. payroll) taxes? (see same link above)

Lowest Quintle 4.8%
Second Quintile 10.8%
Third Quintile 16.6%
Fourth Quintile 24.7%
Fifth (Highest) Quintile 42.9%

Interesting don't you think that the Top 40% pay 2/3 of all payroll taxes?

So the next time you hear somebody say the "rich don't pay their fair share", you can let them in on the secret.
59 posted on 08/18/2011 7:48:20 PM PDT by RangerM
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