Interesting Income & Tax statistics
Apr. 26th, 2004 03:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pluralSource 1 & Source 2
Average Pre-tax family income by percentile
(in projected 1999 US Dollars)
The Wealthiest 20% of Americans (23.6 Million families) earn an average of $132,000 per year
The Upper Middle Class 20% of Americans (22.6 Million families) earn an average of $53,000
The Middle Class 20% of Americans (22.5 Million families) earn an average of $35,400
The Lower Middle Class 20% (23.3 Million families) earn an average of $21,200
The Poorest 20% (22.7 Million families) earn an average of $8,400
The national average for all (116 million) families is $49,500
The Wealthiest 1% of Americans (1.2 million families) earn an average of $719,000
The Wealthiest 5% of Americans (5.9 million families) earns an average of $276,000
The Wealthiest 10% of Americans (11.9 Million families) earns an average of $188,000
Who shoulders the burden?
Legend
Income Tax Burden (1977-1995)
1999 Projected Tax Burden
or to put it more succinctly
out of every income tax dollar that is collected
the poorest pay 1 cent
the lower middle class pay 5 cent
the middle class pays 11 cents
the upper middle class pays 19 cents
and the wealthiest americans pay 65 cents
the wealthiest one percent of americans (or 1.2 million families)
pay 21 cents out of every income tax dollar collected
as much as I am not a big fan of Bush
I have to admit these numbers
make his tax cut plan seem quite a bit more fair
The wealthiest 20% earn roughly 53.7% of the taxed income
but pay 65% percent of the income tax collected
80% or roughly 91.1 Million American families
earn 46.3% of the taxable income
pay 35% of the income tax collected
20% or 23.6 Million American families
generate 116% of the income of the other 80%
Each of the 23.6 million wealthiest american families
generates on average 2.276/million% of the total income in the US
While the remainder of 91.1 million familes which makes up for the rest of you
generates on average 0.5/million% of the total income in the US
Whichs means that average wealthiest family (20%) generates 4.5 times
the income of the average american family (80%)
The Average 80% family pays 0.38/million% of the income tax collected
The Average 20% family pays 2.75/million% of the income tax collected
or 7.25 times as much as the rest of you.
So while they earn 4.5 times as much as you
They pay 7.25 times as much in taxes
This points to a fairly large income gap in the US
and while depending on your politics
you may feel it is the deserved result of industrious
or a sign of larger social problems
Below are the numbers which I used for the total and per capita income % statistics
which were generated by multiplying the average income for a group
by the population of that group to obtain rough total income for the populations
[yes I am aware of the inadequacies of the method, but it accurate enough]
$3,115,200,000,000 Highest Quintile
$1,197,800,000,000 Fourth Quintile
$796,500,000,000 Middle Quintile
$493,960,000,000 Second Quintile
$190,680,000,000 Lowest Quintile
80% subtotal
$2,678,940,000,000
Total:
$5,794,140,000,000
Average Pre-tax family income by percentile
(in projected 1999 US Dollars)
The Wealthiest 20% of Americans (23.6 Million families) earn an average of $132,000 per year
The Upper Middle Class 20% of Americans (22.6 Million families) earn an average of $53,000
The Middle Class 20% of Americans (22.5 Million families) earn an average of $35,400
The Lower Middle Class 20% (23.3 Million families) earn an average of $21,200
The Poorest 20% (22.7 Million families) earn an average of $8,400
The national average for all (116 million) families is $49,500
The Wealthiest 1% of Americans (1.2 million families) earn an average of $719,000
The Wealthiest 5% of Americans (5.9 million families) earns an average of $276,000
The Wealthiest 10% of Americans (11.9 Million families) earns an average of $188,000
Who shoulders the burden?
Legend
Income Tax Burden (1977-1995)
1999 Projected Tax Burden
or to put it more succinctly
out of every income tax dollar that is collected
the poorest pay 1 cent
the lower middle class pay 5 cent
the middle class pays 11 cents
the upper middle class pays 19 cents
and the wealthiest americans pay 65 cents
the wealthiest one percent of americans (or 1.2 million families)
pay 21 cents out of every income tax dollar collected
as much as I am not a big fan of Bush
I have to admit these numbers
make his tax cut plan seem quite a bit more fair
The wealthiest 20% earn roughly 53.7% of the taxed income
but pay 65% percent of the income tax collected
80% or roughly 91.1 Million American families
earn 46.3% of the taxable income
pay 35% of the income tax collected
20% or 23.6 Million American families
generate 116% of the income of the other 80%
Each of the 23.6 million wealthiest american families
generates on average 2.276/million% of the total income in the US
While the remainder of 91.1 million familes which makes up for the rest of you
generates on average 0.5/million% of the total income in the US
Whichs means that average wealthiest family (20%) generates 4.5 times
the income of the average american family (80%)
The Average 80% family pays 0.38/million% of the income tax collected
The Average 20% family pays 2.75/million% of the income tax collected
or 7.25 times as much as the rest of you.
So while they earn 4.5 times as much as you
They pay 7.25 times as much in taxes
This points to a fairly large income gap in the US
and while depending on your politics
you may feel it is the deserved result of industrious
or a sign of larger social problems
Below are the numbers which I used for the total and per capita income % statistics
which were generated by multiplying the average income for a group
by the population of that group to obtain rough total income for the populations
[yes I am aware of the inadequacies of the method, but it accurate enough]
$3,115,200,000,000 Highest Quintile
$1,197,800,000,000 Fourth Quintile
$796,500,000,000 Middle Quintile
$493,960,000,000 Second Quintile
$190,680,000,000 Lowest Quintile
80% subtotal
$2,678,940,000,000
Total:
$5,794,140,000,000
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-04-26 03:02 pm (UTC)Also, how do you reconcile your back of the envelope calculations that seem to suggest that the pay disparity between rich and poor is about 4 times (that is, those in the bottom 20% to those in the top 20%), when there are other studies that suggest the gap between CEOs and their workers jumped to something closer to 200 times (from about 20 in the seventies)?
I'm guessing you are masking some really profound outliers when lumping the whole shebang into quintiles.
I guess all I'm saying is it doesn't surprise me. Further, I have perfect faith in the free market (that is: if it was really a burden those that paid wouldn't)