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"In 1999, the top 1% of income earners paid 36.2 percent of the individual income taxes collected in this country, and the top 5 percent paid 55.5 percent. In contrast, during the same year, the bottom 50% paid just 4% of the taxes. This is more information that refutes the oft-repeated canard that the rich don't pay their "fair share." "

Maybe. Maybe not. Lets see, suppose a CEO earned $1,000,000 in 1979 and pays $400,000 in taxes. The same CEO earned $50,000,000 in 1997 and pays $20,000,000 in taxes. Suppose everybody else stays the same. The CEO is paying a heck of a lot more of the percent of tax in 1997, BUT, it is because his share of the earnings has greatly increased. I will see if I can use your numbers and verify or rebut this possibility. Hardcopying as we speaketh. parsy.

Even if "the rich" get taxed at 49% (effective), and "the rest" at 1%, any income increase by "the rich" will result in their % of the tax pie in relation to the income pie to decrease.

The only way to "fix" this is to have "the rich" pay an effective rate > 50%.

(I'm certainly not saying that's fair. Is it fair for someone's income to double, while their % of the tax pie increases > 2X?)