Climate change continues to melt Glacier National Park

Did that news also mention that the bottom 40% of Americans only control 0.2% of its wealth? It seems quite logical to me that they not pay much in the way of taxes when that their share of the wealth is so miserably small. BTW, the top 0.01% controls 6% of the wealth, a figure that doubled in the last 10 years.

 

It seems quite illogical to me to compare income taxes to accumulated wealth.

On the very same income, some people accumulate substantial wealth, while many other accumulate little or nothing. Our loose credit structure even allows many people with strong middle class or higher income to operate much of their lives with negative wealth. This lack of accumulation should not exempt them from income taxes -- only low income should do that.

 

"This lack of accumulation should not exempt them from income taxes -- only low income should do that."

While this is true,, there is a clear correlation between tax policy in the last generation and the concentration of wealth.

The reality is that since the Reagan years, the poor have gotten poorer in real world dollars and the rich have (by nearly every metric) gotten richer.

I don't begrudge those that have accumulated assets through hard work, prudent spending, and investing over a lifetime, but there is no doubt that much of the super wealth in the USA has come disproportionally at the expense of the poor and middle classes, to some great extent from the preferential tax treatment, as well as subsidies that some of us might call "corporate" welfare. Is anyone surprised that Wall Street reaps the profits and bonuses that it does, even now after the melt down and bail out?

 

It's kind of outdated, but in 2000, the top 20% of Americans made 58% of the nation's income.

Economic Inequality

And another interesting analysis of income inequality:

U.S. Tolerance of Income Inequality | Center for Strategic and International Studies

Even Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations noted that those who had more wealth had an obligation to pay more taxes because they got more benefit in the protection of their wealth than the poor.

You could probably include AGW in there by virtue of all that seacoast property the wealthy own and will lose!

 

I know this thread is moving in other directions, but if anyone is interested in studies that apportion earth energy balance (positive and negative) to CO2, anthro. aerosols, volcanic aerosols. solar output, and things like that pls let me know. I could probably develop a a list. The one I mentioned earlier (Conway 2000 I think) is but one among several.