kokonut
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The poor don't pay taxes? that's a big surprise to them
"The reality is that the income tax is one of a number of types of taxes that individuals pay, both over the course of their lifetimes and in a given year, and it makes little sense to treat it as though it were the only one that matters. Some 86 percent of working households pay more in payroll taxes than in federal income taxes. In fact, low- and moderate-income people pay a much larger share of their incomes in federal payroll taxes than high-income people do: taxpayers in the bottom 20 percent of the income scale paid an average of 8.8 percent of their incomes in payroll taxes in 2007, compared to just 1.6 percent for taxpayers in the top 1 percent of the income distribution. ..."
That (bold) is rather misleading. It is certainly a ratio issue when it comes to income disparity differences and the taxes paid but the bottom line is that the top 25% income earners pay 86% of all federal income taxes while the top 50% income earners pay 97% of all incomes taxes (as of 2005). What counts is the revenues that the Federal govt gets each year.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/05in05tr.xls
Even if you tax at 100% from the rich, it would still not pay off the debt. It has always been a spending problem which continues to completely outstrip the amount of revenues that come in each year.
The "poor" (definition varies) will always pay more on all kinds of taxes relative to the amount they earn. And not just taxes but pay more for the cost of food, supplies and services as prices continue to go up.