Quote:
According to Internal Revenue Service data, the entire taxable income of everyone earning over $100,000 in 2008 was about $1.582 trillion.
That's interesting, because the GDP in 2008 was about 14 trillion. Considering about 20% of the population made over $100,000, there should have been about 1.8 trillion there even if that entire 20% made ONLY $100,000 a year. With a GDP of about 14 trillion, and considering the wealthiest 1% of Americans have as much money as the bottom 90% combined, well, the wealthy are making out like bandits if that's all the IRS can squeeze from them.
Sounds to me like "taxable income" means "what they were actually required to pay" and not "what they could have paid if it weren't for tax cuts and loopholes."