Quote:
	
	
		
			
				
					Originally Posted by  Kevy Baby
					 
				 
				You are supporting SCAE and my argument: the wealthy pay the highest percentage of taxes. 
 
Also, "The top 1% pays about 35% of taxes" does not preclude my (trying to remember) numbers. It is just a smaller sampling from a larger subset. 
			
		 | 
	
	
 Wiki again
	Quote:
	
	
		| 
			
				  In the United States at the end of 2001, 10% of the population owned 71% of the wealth, and the top 1% controlled 38%. On the other hand, the bottom 40% owned less than 1% of the nation's wealth. In 2003, the most-earning 1% of the population in the United States, which has a system of progressive taxation, paid over 34% of the nation's federal income tax; the most-earning 10% bore 66% of the total tax load; the top 25% of income earners paid 84% of the income taxes; and the upper half accounted for virtually the entire U.S. income tax revenue (nearly 97%).
			
		 | 
	
	
 So as I see it, with the top one percent controling 38% of the wealth but only paying 34% of the taxes (71%/66% for the top 10), the wealthiest are carrying a smaller tax burden by proportion than the tax brackets below them.  They may account for a larger gross portion of the intake, however they are individually paying a smaller portion of their wealth than an individual in middle to lower class.