Saturday, October 26, 2013

Income inequality in historical perspective

 

 incomeinequality.jpg (JPEG Image, 570 × 416 pixels)   The graph in the previous post came from same source.

Maybe it would be okay to raise marginal tax rates on the top income earners?  Just a little?

5 comments:

  1. No way. They need their diamond crusted private jets and gold laminated caviar or their greed will starve them to death. Some humanity please.

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  2. Here is another (very different) graph that really puts the effects of the above income disparity into context. this study shows that the highest scoring low income students have as high a college completion rate as the lowest scoring high income students:

    http://www.epi.org/files/page/-/old/images/snap20051012a.gif

    full article: http://www.epi.org/publication/webfeatures_snapshots_20051012/

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  3. The most redistributionist countries on the planet tend not to be those with really progressive taxes. Instead, they're the countries that tax regressively but then direct that money overwhelmingly to poor residents.Although the top 10 percent in US gets a bigger slice to start, but it also pays a much higher share of the tax burden than the upper classes in other countries . I believe the problem is that the overall tax and transfer system reduces inequality less than those in peer countries.

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  4. Definitely think we can raise taxes "just a little" if not more for the top earners. It will be interesting to see if any change happens though.

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