Who Pays Taxes & What Do They Buy?
The greed of the political class is limitless. Our progressive government has become worse than any cartel. Let me restate that: Our progressive government IS a cartel.
The United States federal government spends more than any government that exists on Planet Earth today—more than any government in all of recorded human history.
In terms of spending, our federal government dwarfs the largest global corporations, institutions, and organizations of all kinds. It burns through other people’s money at an unmatched rate and scale, piling debt on future generations that will eventually crush them.
Never before has a nation of people who call themselves “progressive” been so cruelly uncaring for their own posterity.
My generation didn’t start this fire of reckless, corrupt, unconstitutional spending, but we failed to douse it—often fanning the flames. For that, I’m sorry.
Yesterday was Tax Day, a stark reminder of who pays for the ridiculous excess of political elites. Some still tout the tired myth that “the rich don’t pay their fair share.” Let’s cut through the noise with facts.
Numbers Don’t Lie
Tens of millions of adult Americans pay no federal income tax, thanks to low incomes, deductions, or credits.
Many of these fellow Americans are net beneficiaries: They receive FROM government more than they pay TO government, sometimes far more.
Of those who do pay income taxes:
The top 1% of earners pay 46% of total federal income taxes.
The top 5% of earners pay 66% of total federal income taxes.
The top 10% of earners pay 76% of total federal income taxes.
The top 50%—earning over $46,000 a year—foot 97.7% of the income tax bill. That’s right: $46,000 makes you “rich” by IRS standards.
The most productive Americans, earning above $46,000, bankroll virtually all income taxes. For those who insist “the rich don’t pay their fair share,” how much more would you have them pay?
Who Doesn’t Pay Their Fair Share?
Meanwhile, the bottom 50% contribute just 2.3% of income taxes received by the IRS, with the bottom 20% paying less than 1%.
Roughly 72.5 million households (40% of all households) pay no federal income tax at all due to low income, deductions, and credits, so they are excluded from the pool of “taxpayers” in this context.
So, who’s not paying their “fair share?”
The least productive—those earning under $46,000—lean on subsidies while contributing next to nothing. This isn’t judgment; it’s math.
Add: Growing numbers of misnamed “non-profits”—some of which bring in enormous amounts of money (including grants from the government you and I fund), are quite profitable, and compensate their top staff with large salaries and additional perks—and all of which are tax-exempt.
Charitable, tax-exempt organizations pay no taxes of any kind.
Greed Without Limit
Once you pay federal income tax, you’re done paying taxes on the money you earned, right? Hardly. That’s a bad joke.
After paying federal tax on your hard-earned income, you pay a state tax on the very same income. (All but nine states have state income taxes.) Then, on anything you choose to purchase with your double-taxed income, you pay sales taxes.
If you buy a house or a car, you pay property taxes—not once, not twice, but for as long as you own the house or car. Don’t forget, if you want to drive your car on a street, you have to pay yet more money to government for the privilege of a license plate.
You pay taxes on capital gains. You pay death taxes on your estate. Your phone bill, gas bill, water bill, hospital bill, and many other bills are loaded with yet more taxes, sometimes hidden or disguised as “fees.”
Cute trick, eh?
We Americans are taxed at every turn. We pay taxes on the same dollar over and over and over and over and over. If you were to track all the money you spend over the course of a year, it’s likely more than 50% goes to government.
Let that sink in.
You might think the political class is satisfied and satiated by the enormous amounts of other people’s money they take, yes? They’re not.
They continue to demand more of other people’s money, while they rack up a national debt of nearly $37 TRILLION—a figure that does not include the debts of state, county, and municipal governments across the U.S.
It also does not include the mind-boggling amounts of underfunded or wholly unfunded liabilities for government bureaucrats when they retire—such as pensions and retiree healthcare benefits.
The avarice of the political class is limitless. Our government is worse than any cartel. Let me restate that: Our government IS a cartel. It differs from other cartels only in that it steals more, wastes more, threatens more, and has more stormtroopers, more jails, more bullets, and bigger bombs.
Eternal Return of the Same?
As the annual tax season frenzy fades, reflect on the embarrassingly unjust and unconstitutional government that you prop up with your money that is taken by those in government as they threaten violence if you fail to comply with their demands.
Notice what others say they value, while demanding that YOU subsidize it—and shaming you if you object. Think about the growing social pathologies all across the United States that are incentivized by government programs you are forced to fund.
Let us never forget that the United States came to be when good people refused to pay taxes to a bad government. Nietzsche once described the human condition as the “eternal return of the same.” Have we returned to the same situation we once fought a revolutionary war to escape?
That’s a question for you to answer.
I’ve read similar exposes on this subject. I would guess that most who read it would say , “That’s outrageous, but what can I do about it?”
Someone recently wrote another article about the extreme privilege that we Americans live in, day-in and day-out, yet there is a whole generation that has never experienced any real desperation and thus they feel that the America they live in has hindered them from succeeding in life and somehow socialism must be the answer. We are such a deceived culture today! Many seem to know nothing of the fruits of hard work.
What we need is a reawakening to our Nation’s founding fathers ideals and understand that they are worth fighting for. The question always comes down to, “What plan of action can be fulfilled to make our Nation what it should be?”
For me and a few I know, the answer can only be found in pursuing The God Who created and discovering why He created us. Then get down to business and work hard until it’s a reality.
Pls deliver clarity to one paragraph:
:...Add: Growing numbers of misnamed “non-profits”—some of which bring in enormous amounts of money (including grants from the government you and I fund), are quite profitable, and compensate their top staff with large salaries and additional perks—and all of which are tax-exempt..."
In my first, quick reading, it appeared that "top staff" of "non-profits" do not have to pay income taxes. They do, of course, unless they work for the worst of the non-profits, the United Nations, (which reimburses US citizens and others for taxes assessed by their home governments).
And when I re-read your statement, I see that it is correct, if misleading to the casual reader.
Thank you for all that you contribute to the good fight against America's Ruling Class.