Do the Rich Pay Their Fair Share? | 5 Minute Video
Do the rich pay their fair share of taxes? It’s not a simple question. First of all, what do you mean by rich? And how much is fair? What are the rich, whoever they are, paying now? Is there any tax rate that would be unfair? UCLA Professor of Economics, Lee Ohanian, has some fascinating and unexpected answers.
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Script:
Here’s a question you’re likely to hear whenever the subject of taxes comes up: Do the rich pay their fair share?
There are two parts to this question: Who is rich? And, what is fair?
Let’s start with who is rich:
Nearly everyone assumes that a person who is among the top ten percent of all income earners qualifies as rich.
But according to 2011 data, a top ten percent household makes around $150,000 or above in gross annual income — that’s income before deductions and taxes. Now, $150,000 is a nice living, but it certainly doesn’t make you rich.
OK, then. What about the top 5%?
You get into this percentile if your household makes around $190,000 or above. That’s a nice bump. But it hardly puts you in the rich category.
How about the top 1%? That’s $500,000 or above. A great income, but remember, most people only get to that level after many years of hard work and, quite possibly, the accumulation of serious debt to fund their education or build their business.
Of course, there are people who make more than $500,000. And there are some who make many millions, even billions. But the number who do is very small.
Now, let’s talk about fair.
Fair would seem be that the group of taxpayers who earn 10% of the country’s income would pay 10% of the country’s taxes; the group who earned 20% would pay 20% of the taxes and so on.
But what If I told you that, according to IRS data, the top 10% of all earners — the people making $150,000 and above — pay 71% of all federal income tax while earning only 43% of all income. If anything, the top ten percent pay more than their fair share. So, as it happens, do the much reviled top 1%. They earn 17 percent of all income, but pay 37% of all federal income taxes.
And what about those at the other end of the income scale, the lower earners? Are we squeezing them? Hardly. Those who make $45,000 or less, 47% of all earners, pay little and often no income taxes.
Ah, but what about payroll taxes — the money we pay to fund Social Security and Medicare? That takes a bigger bite of the paycheck of lower earners than higher earners. Isn’t that unfair?
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fairness is not about an amount or a class. its about individuals and basic expenses.
Instead of taxing income we should tax non-working time. .
Shouldn't someone who works longer hours on the same income as someone else pay less taxes,
and someone who gets more vacation time?
Of course certain people like the unemployed, disabled, students, the retired and stay at home parents should be exempt.
and of course it would also depend on how stressful their work is. Some workers need more time off than others.
Wait a minute.Are you trying to say the Democrat party lies about “the rich” just to obtain votes? That can’t be everyone knows it’s unconstitutional for politicians to lie simply to be reelected and remain in power.
This is about employment tax. What about corporation tax, GST, and all the other taxes which are hidden. Does Amazon pay its fair share, does EBay? And do they pay tax on their overseas earnings? What about off-shore havens for the super rich?
Don’t be fooled into thinking the super rich pay their fair share. The top 1% pay 30% of all tax revenues which might equate to only 5% of their income from all sources. How is it fair that the average American pays 30% of income as tax and the super wealthy only pay 5%? Surely the super wealthy should pay their fair equivalent percentage on their income like the average earner. Oh how the super wealthy would squeal.
LOl .. misleading as per usual … reality is we were better off as a society post ww2 with higher marginal tax rates om high income instead of trickle down misdirection nonsense.. ave growth was 4 % vs the 2% average under this delusion … the real analysis is not on amount but what % of your income is taxed .. lower incomes are taxed greater than higher …the question is what disposable income is left AFTER to pay for needs .. tired of listening to rich whine
THE LAZY DON’T WORK THEIR FAIR SHARE.
There is no such thing as Free Markets under the 2nd Pillar of The Communist Manifesto, a "highly graduated progressive income tax".
Somebody send this to Kamala. Perhaps she will shut her stupid mouth. The democrats fail to mention how much money the wealthy donates to charity or the jobs they create.
How about the fact that the top 1 % have have nearly 50% of the countries wealth and they pay far less tax on an individual basis, nobodies even talking about taxing people on $500 000 more it's the 0.3% that's sucking the country dry
The Achilles heel to the arguement is that higher taxes would only mean more money for a dysfunctional government that would just waste it. The system is broke. Taxes won't fix it
No they don’t. Never will. They pay for the loopholes to re elect the people who put in the rules.
As someone who is nearly at the 1%threshold for the last few years, I would love to know how I’m NOT paying my fair share of taxes. Losing 45% of my paycheck every month (state and federal) is infuriating, on top of the federal student debt that I can’t write off.
It’s supposed to be trickle down economics, not trickle up economics
Our money is supposed to all go up with the eventual return of a little bit of it, but we spend more money then we’ll ever earn in our lifetime on bills
Because bills keep on, going up and up and as bills go up pays stagnate which means that we have to work harder, which means the work we did is worthless
excellent video
That just not true when you say the top 1% pay their fare share. You’re 17% & 37% stats don’t take into account most of the money the top 1% makes is not taxable, it’s not from their incomes it’s from other sources like stock trades
The Wealthy do Pay a lot of Taxes IN–BUT–Tax Shelters allows them to get most of it Back.
America's rich have friends all over the world. If the USA taxes them too much, why wouldn't they just take their money and move to a different country? I'm sure that them, and their money, would be welcome anywhere.
This video is so scummy, the rich pay more in income taxes thats all but sales, excise, parts of income and property taxes are all on the brunt of the poor. Payroll pay ins are capped at around 200,000$ so if you earn less then that your taxed 15% of your income but if you earn 400,000 your only taxed 7.5%, sounds very fair.
They absolutely pay their fair share and more. STOP under taxing the poor. They pay virtually nothing in taxes. How about the "poor" pay their fair share.
It doesn't matter, until we have a balanced budget at the federal level. TAXATION is THEFT!!!! Social security these corrupt Politicians keep moving the line.
This has got to be the most garbage propaganda bs I ever saw. Someone should sue them for pretending to be a university. Jeff bezos paid 0 dollars in taxes for 20 years because Amazon didn’t make a “profit” there’s way more tax breaks for the rich and upper middle class but I don’t think increasing taxes on them helps but 0 percent of 200 billion dollars is definitely unfair
150,000$ doesn’t make you rich? Then We have a wayyy more serious problems than taxation.
The present course may be fair, but is it necessary? Why do we keep treating Government like a business?
Wouldn’t government be less subject to politics if it were of a more singular purpose that didn’t just waste a substantial percentage of our ever decreasing Time?
It isn't so much to me them paying their share in taxes. They need to reinvest into jobs here in the US. They need to stop making it so hard to move up. People on the top are often unpleasant people. I rather them being good human beings and treat people with dignity. I shouldn't be treated as your personal slave. I have seen good owners, but way to many are not good. Way to many have no respect or feelings to help those at the bottom of their companies. They just see you as an ant.
The people complaining the most, are the bottom 50% of wage earners that pay virtually ZERO income taxes, and consume 100% of the welfare dollars.
The top 5% of wage earners (like me) pay over 60% of the income taxes and use ZERO welfare dollars.
I have paid over $60,000 in income taxes in a year, taking money that I earned by working my ass off, literally taking food out of the mouths of my family members, to pay to support several lazy morbidly obese welfare "families" out of my taxes. But instead of being thankful for what I have provided them, they bitch about me "not paying my fair share", and they use all their free time to commit crimes.
oh okay buddy
how much tax do rhe rich pay on their stocks and off shore bank accounts?????
im not waiting because you cant answer
piece of sh!t lying scumb@g
i love how this scumb@g blueblood only mentions that the rich pay more than their fair share of the INCOME tax lol
which isnt even remotely true of course (cause this scumb@g's definition of "fair" is nonsensical) but thats not surprising…
income tax is a MICROSCOPIC expense when compared to everything else the poor must pay for
medicare for wealthy boomers
welfare for deadbeat republican voters
sales tax
property tax
taxes and interest rates on loans from predatory banks
it goes on and on and on
NONE of which the rich have to worry about because they write tax code and employ all the accountants to do their dirty tax evasion
of you believe ANY of this channel's propaganda you are a complete id!ot lol
"$150,000 per year is not rich"
me who works full time hours and makes my grocery store, single handedly, well over $500,000 every year in PROFIT (not value) from the freight I stock on their shelves and makes less than $18,000 per year, "shut the f!&k up before I feed you a bullet, blueblood."
i GUARANTEE almost every person that makes $150,000 cant even APPROACH the amount of value my stockboy job brings and yet…
When Donald Trump pays less in taxes in a year than a school teacher something is wrong. When a teacher cannot write off buying teaching supplies for students but a businessman can write off renting a luxury yatch there's something wrong.
So fun to watch this guy just skate over the richest 1%, who make far, far more than the rest of us combined, and go "but the number who make that much is very small" as if that somehow makes it better. It doesn't. That is EXACTLY the problem
The rich should have express lanes at grocery stores, special parking spots and fast lanes on roads, for how much they contribute to society with 47% of income earners just leeching off them, but complaining the whole time.