Tag Archives: above-the-total

The recent findings from the CBO on income inequality in the US is shocking and disheartening. If the following stats aren't reason to overhaul our tax policy, nothing is. It's time to not only let the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires expire, but also roll back the Reagan tax cuts. Getting the millionaires club, aka the Senate, to take action will be hard, but call your members of congress and urge them to give the middle class a chance. “Major findings: In 2007, the share of after-tax income going to the top 1 percent hit its highest level (17.1 percent) since 1979, while the share going to the middle one-fifth of Americans shrank to its lowest level during this period (14.1 percent). Between 1979 and 2007, average after-tax incomes for the top 1 percent rose by 281 percent after adjusting for inflation — an increase in income of $973,100 per household — compared to increases of 25 percent ($11,200 per household) for the middle fifth of households and 16 percent ($2,400 per household) for the bottom fifth (see Figure 1). If all groups’ after-tax incomes had grown at the same percentage rate over the 1979-2007 period, middle-income households would have received an additional $13,042 in 2007 and families in the bottom fifth would have received an additional $6,010. In 2007, the average household in the top 1 percent had an income of $1.3 million, up $88,800 just from the prior year; this $88,800 gain is well above the total 2007 income of the average middle-income household ($55,300).” http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4074/4738359043_3c5c8bcdb7_b.jpg added by: tbowman131