Many private pricing systems also attempt to achieve a progressive effect. The most ham-handed and frustrating mechanism comes from colleges. You need to fill out a FAFSA form to apply for financial aid, and any savings your family has accumulated … Continue reading
If you fiddle around with the NYT’s wonderful interactive tax tool, you’ll find that state & local taxes are generally less progressive than the federal income tax. because real estate taxes are based on property value (ad valorem), they can … Continue reading
Back in 2009, The indispensable Tax Prof published a table of what it might take to close the 2010 deficit by taxing the rich everyone. Taxprof’s source link has moved here.
The NYT comes through with a terrific set of interactive graphics on the tax burden over time. Some of the series are subject to the same analytical shortcomings I’ve discussed elsewhere, but they’ve laid data out in a really appealing … Continue reading
John Cochrane does a superb job of walking through the unfairness at the low end of the income tax system Written into law is a much larger welfare state than we actually have. Americans don’t fully play the game. Yet. … Continue reading
I’ve made reference (in my series of posts on taxes and inequality) to potential reported discontinuities in reported income. I downloaded the CBO’s data on taxes from 1979-2009 and created this graph from the reported figures for the top 1% … Continue reading
Consider the following three graphs which seem to tell different stories. You have to read carefully to see that they don’t directly contradict each other: Recently Annie Lowrey, blogging in the “debt Reckoning” section , posts the top graphic … Continue reading
In my prior link compendium, the middle section of the post listed my prior beliefs about taxes and inequality. I’m going to separate and refine them here. As you can tell, I’ve already done a fair amount of reading on … Continue reading
This photo is being passed around on Facebook. Quick check Total Govt spend on Healthcare = $1.1 Trillion (National and Local) US Economy Spend on Healthcare (pdf) = $2.7 Trillion Govt. spend on Defense = $0.9 Trillion strictly rendered, the US spends 3X as … Continue reading
David Henderson has a little fun with an obviously false quote from an Illinois Congressman – “Nobody likes to pay taxes. Nobody wants to raise taxes on anybody.” Obviously somebody does. He also links this recent New York Times article which … Continue reading