[eno_]

Today, the bottom 25% of the population pays 3-4% of the income tax collected by the Federal government which means that most of them have no earned income.

That's just wacky. The bottom 25% pay little or no tax because of low marginal rates and (relative to their incomes) high personal and dependent deductions.

[liberallarry]

That's just wacky

I wonder. Certainly the bottom 10% pays nothing. Probably the bottom 15%. How much can they earn and still pay nothing but FICA? How much is left after FICA and other taxes are paid? $500 a month? $1000 a month?

[liberallarry]

The number of Americans living below the poverty line increased by more than 1.3 million last year...the total percentage of people in poverty increased to 12.4 percent from 12.1 percent in 2001 and totaled 34.8 million. At the same time, the number of families living in poverty went up by more than 300,000 in 2002 to 7 million from 6.6 million in 2001...in 2001, a family of two adults and two children would have to have made less than $17,960 a year to be ranked as living below the poverty level. For a single person under the age of 65 the poverty line was roughly $9,200 a year.

from Census Shows Ranks of Poor Rose by 1.3 Million

Interesting.