Republican Math

Succinct post today.

I’m getting fucking sick of hearing: “The top 10% pays 40% of all the taxes! That’s not fair!”

That statement is said by rich people and blindly repeated by fucking dim-witted right-wing morons who’ve been convinced by the rich that they’ll be rich someday so they fight to keep rich people’s taxes low because they don’t want to pay taxes when they become rich. It is mathematically impossible for everyone to be rich.

To associate “10%” with “40%” is false. Why? Because the math I use does not come down from Bullshit Mountain, which resides within the Republ-O-Sphere, where facts go to die. The math I use comes from the real world. 

This is the correct statement: “The people who have almost 90% of the country’s money pay only 40% of the taxes? That’s fucking bullshit!”

The amount of people is irrelevant. The amount of taxes in relation to the amount of money is important.

Plus:

CEO’s keep getting more raises.

Corporations keep getting more tax breaks.

And employees keep getting salaries & benefits reduced or laid off. A laid-off employee equals a wealthier CEO.

 

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I’m also getting fucking sick of hearing that other right-wing chestnut: “The bottom 50% of the country pays NO taxes! The poor are moochers!”

First, that’s a lie. These are all people with incomes below the poverty level. Below the lowest income tax rate – so they pay no Federal taxes. They do, however, pay sales, payroll, welfare, Medicare taxes, etc. That is – the ones that are working do. The ones that aren’t working happen to be the retired, infirmed, college students and children. So, you see, for this lie to work - that the bottom 50% don’t pay taxes - you’d have to do some more Republican Math. 

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Fucking watch this. This is the best visual perspective you’ll get on the issue.

Wealth Inequality in America

Fucking read this. Make a note that the information is from 2007 – before the crash. The wealth disparity has substantially grown since then. The wealthy have gotten wealthier and the poor have gotten poorer. Between 2007 & 2010, average families lost 39% of their wealth. 

Mother Jones: It's the Inequality, Stupid 

Read this, too, while you’re at it. 

AlterNet: Fun Facts About Rich People: Walmart Heirs Own More Wealth Than Bottom 40% of Americans; the Wealthy Give Less to Charity Than the Poor

And now, a few words from a guest speaker unaware he is guest-speaking - economist, professor and former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich:

 

Good day.

Fun fact: The six richest individual people in America (all Wal*Mart family members) own more wealth than the bottom 40% of American families combined (approximately 120,000,000 people).

To recap:
In America, 6 people have more money than 120,000,000 people.

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