US super-rich (top 400 families) get five times more income than in 1995

[Hannah Bell]

The incomes of the very rich in the US grew phenomenally between 1992 and 2007, while their tax rates plummeted, according to recently uncovered (feb) IRS statistics.

*** summary ***

-- average income for the top 400 families (1990 dollars) grew from $17 million to $87 million, a five-fold increase

-- the percentage of national income they took tripled from .52 percent in 1992 to 1.59 in 2007

-- their incomes increase by 31% between 2006 and 2007 alone

-- the average income of each family was $345 million (2009 dollars)

-- their effective tax rate on this group fell to 16.6%





The top 400 income earners received a total income of $138 billion in 2007. This figure is larger than the yearly output of most of the world’s countries, and is nearly as large as the GDP of Chile. Out of this amount, the group paid only $23 billion in taxes.

If the top 400 earners had been taxed in 2007 at the 1995 rate, they would have paid an additional $18.4 billion in taxes, enough to cover the entire 2010 budget shortfall of the state of California.

About three quarters of income for earners in this tax bracket came from capital gains, which were taxed at 15 percent, as opposed to income, which is taxed at a rate of 35 percent for the top bracket.

The latest figures come amid constant calls by the White House and Congress to cut social programs in order to balance the budget. The federal government, we are told, has been bankrupted by the “profligacy” of social programs and the proportion of social resources allocated to the general population. But the latest figures show that the opposite is true. It is the rich who have bankrupted the state, with the full assistance of the two big-business parties.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/fams-f20.shtml

[Union Yes]

1. Wealth... Fuels....Tyranny.

knr

edit: someone unrecced, still at zero.:grr:

[hfojvt]

2. it was not me

even though I think this OP is a re-run http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/123

[Lasher]

8. Same subject, different source.

The charts in this one are compelling, and mainly for that reason I'm saving this OP for future reference. This is a story that can't be told often enough IMO.

[Initech]

15. And vice-versa.

[bemildred]

3. And that is what the "Reagan Revolution" is really all about. nt

[Lasher]

6. Yes, it's just that simple.

Robin Hood in reverse.

[RedCloud]

7. Except trickle down is the golden shower we get from the super-rich.

[Lasher]

9. Well that was just a snake oil sales pitch.

Nothing really trickled anywhere except maybe to other countries where there's cheap labor.

[bemildred]

4. Dupe. nt

[maryf]

5. K&R

tax the rich 5 times...

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. ^5

:thumbsup:

[cap]

10. who are the 400 families?

[troubledamerican]

14. Top 18 U.S. families

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/04/25/estate-18/

[Lasher]

16. Here is another source

http://www.citizen.org/documents/EstateTaxFinal.pdf

Scroll to pages 11 thru 13 where the 18 families are listed. This does not directly answer your question since it lists only those of the wealthiest who have bankrolled the estate tax repeal. The Gates and Buffett families, for example, would surely be among the top 400, but are not included in the 18.

[Wilms]

11. k&r n/t

[Trillo]

12. As I was looking at your top chart, it occurred that's what the inflation index should be

tied to. The CPI.

[Lasher]

17. Adding this article for posterity

The World Socialist Web Site article in the OP credits it with having first publicized the IRS report that was released but unannounced.

Tax Rates for Top 400 Earners Fall as Income Soars, IRS Data


Since 1992, the bottom 90 percent of Americans have seen their incomes rise by 13 percent in 2009 dollars, compared with an increase of 399 percent for the top 400.

The annual top 400 report was first made public by the Clinton administration, but the George W. Bush administration shut down access to the report. Its release was resumed a year ago when President Obama took office. The Statistics of Income Division at the IRS created the top 400 reports at the urging of Joel Slemrod, a business professor at the University of Michigan.

http://www.tax.com/taxcom/features.nsf/Articles/0DEC0EAA7E4D7A2B852576CD00714692

[marmar]

18. Plutonomy, Plutocracy, Kleptocracy.....whatever you want to call it.....it's got to end.

nt