False truths about the poor
January 25th 2012 17:50
Much has been made of the fact that a significant chunk of Americans pay no income taxes.
Fox News host Gretchen Carlson said "47 percent of Americans don't pay any taxes."
This statement creates the impression that America is full of freeloading parasites who unfairly benefit from the labor of the nation's more productive citizens.Such impressions unfairly cast low-income Americans in a negative light. If there is one thing Americans can't stand, it's freeloaders.
But when examined, Carlson's statement collapses under the barest scrutinity. While it's true that many Americans don't make enough money to qualify for income taxes, the Fox News host's comments imply that income taxes are the only taxes Americans have to pay. Surely she is aware that there are several other types of taxes the poor have to pay: federal payroll taxes, gas taxes, regressive sales taxes and utility taxes.
According to Pullitzer Prize winning columnist David Cay Johnston, when it comes to state and local taxes, the poor are forced to shoulder a heavier burden than the rich in every state but Vermont.
"In Alabama, for example, the burden on the poor is more than twice that of the top 1 percent," Johnston writes. "The one-fifth of Alabama families making less than $13,00 pay almost 12 percent of their income in state and local taxes, compared with less than 4 percent for those making $229,000 or more."
Laser-like focus on income taxes by politicians, particularly conservatives, has also created a distorted view of how much of the nation's taxes is actually paid by the top 1 percent. By solely concentrating on income taxes, conservatives can claim that the super wealthy already pays 38 to 40 percent of the country's taxes, which not so subtly implies that it would be unfair to force this already overtaxed segment of the population to shoulder even more of the tax burden.
What this argument conveniently omits is that income taxes are less than half of federal taxes and only one-fifth of taxes at all levels of government.
"Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance taxes (known as payroll taxes) are paid mostly by the bottom 90 percent of wage earners," Johnson writes. "That's because, once you reach $106,8000 of income, you pay no more in Social Security, though the much smaller Medicare tax applies to all wages. Warren Buffet pays the exact same amount of Social Security tax as someone who earns $106,800."
In reality, the life of the poor in America is a lot harder than many politicians are willing to admit. Falsely portraying low-income people as free riders is factually and morally wrong and should be rejected by politicians on both sides of the political spectrum.
Fox News host Gretchen Carlson said "47 percent of Americans don't pay any taxes."
This statement creates the impression that America is full of freeloading parasites who unfairly benefit from the labor of the nation's more productive citizens.Such impressions unfairly cast low-income Americans in a negative light. If there is one thing Americans can't stand, it's freeloaders.
But when examined, Carlson's statement collapses under the barest scrutinity. While it's true that many Americans don't make enough money to qualify for income taxes, the Fox News host's comments imply that income taxes are the only taxes Americans have to pay. Surely she is aware that there are several other types of taxes the poor have to pay: federal payroll taxes, gas taxes, regressive sales taxes and utility taxes.
According to Pullitzer Prize winning columnist David Cay Johnston, when it comes to state and local taxes, the poor are forced to shoulder a heavier burden than the rich in every state but Vermont.
"In Alabama, for example, the burden on the poor is more than twice that of the top 1 percent," Johnston writes. "The one-fifth of Alabama families making less than $13,00 pay almost 12 percent of their income in state and local taxes, compared with less than 4 percent for those making $229,000 or more."
Laser-like focus on income taxes by politicians, particularly conservatives, has also created a distorted view of how much of the nation's taxes is actually paid by the top 1 percent. By solely concentrating on income taxes, conservatives can claim that the super wealthy already pays 38 to 40 percent of the country's taxes, which not so subtly implies that it would be unfair to force this already overtaxed segment of the population to shoulder even more of the tax burden.
What this argument conveniently omits is that income taxes are less than half of federal taxes and only one-fifth of taxes at all levels of government.
"Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance taxes (known as payroll taxes) are paid mostly by the bottom 90 percent of wage earners," Johnson writes. "That's because, once you reach $106,8000 of income, you pay no more in Social Security, though the much smaller Medicare tax applies to all wages. Warren Buffet pays the exact same amount of Social Security tax as someone who earns $106,800."
In reality, the life of the poor in America is a lot harder than many politicians are willing to admit. Falsely portraying low-income people as free riders is factually and morally wrong and should be rejected by politicians on both sides of the political spectrum.
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Comment by Nicasio Martinez
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When sitting in church and the subject of discussing the poor, I count the passing minutes to see when someone will inject the 'undeserving' poor.
It was when my grandmother became a widow, that I saw the first of monthly Welfare Checks coming in the mail. To subsidize this insufficient but welcomed safety net, my grandmother put us to bed at night, told us not to get up. She worked at Pennsylvania Station in a resturant at night so we could have sufficient food and decent clothes to wear. Our two bedroom apartment was spotless clean. You could eat off the floor. I'm writing all this on my blog. My grandmother would be labeled a 'welfare cheat' because she sought employment to make up for the loss of her husband.
Gretchen Carlson, the former Miss America, and still vain conservative Fox news host, needs to explore the deeper meaning of caring about others. We are not all born, blond, beautiful, in middleclass homes, in the midwest.
GC interview comment: "My grandfather always taught me, as a minister, not just the religious part of it, but to be humble in life. I think that in this day and age where it's all about celebrities and all about people becoming famous for no reason at all, other than they were on a reality show, that's an important lesson. I just think it is really important to teach the core values that I grew up with, which was the harder you work at something, the better you get. And the better you treat people, the better they treat you."
Read the entire interview.
My grandfather taught me too. Many of us owe a great debt to our grandparents... /nm