|
Friday, February 24, 2006
Tax Cuts Contribute to Growing Gap in Income Inequality
As this telling article from the Bangor Daily News points out, we are a society with striking differences between the rich and the poor. Minimum wage policy, tax policy, and changes in the demand and supply for skilled employees have exacerbated this income inquality to the point where in 2000, the top 1 percent of wage earners owned 10 percent of the nation's total income. The average income of American families has fallen from 2001 - 2004. The current administration's tax policies are adding to this problem. The article says:
Suppose that the administration's tax cuts, which began in 2001, remain in effect until 2015. Over these 15 years, more than half of the tax cuts - 53 percent - will go to people with incomes in the top 10 percent, according to studies commissioned by The New York Times. And 15 percent of the cuts will go to the top one-tenth of 1 percent of taxpayers. By 2015 the tax cuts, if retained, will provide average yearly tax savings of $23 to taxpayers in the bottom 20 percent. The wealthy will fare better. The top one-tenth of 1 percent of all taxpayers will save an average of $196,000 a year, or a total of $2.9 million over the 15 years. By 2015, the top 1 percent of taxpayers will pay a lower share of total taxes than they did in 2001.
It's time to leave this administration's failed tax policy in the past and develop new policies that will help to raise the quality of life of all Americans across the board.
Posted by Becky Lewis
|