Half of Americans Pay No Income Tax

Image by alancleaver_2000 via Flickr

Tomorrow, when you are traveling to work, take a look at the person in the car next to you.  There is a pretty good chance the person next to you isn't paying any federal income tax.  The Tax Policy Center projects that nearly 47% of Americans will pay no income tax.  Sadly, I am not among them, and I am far from one of the evil rich.

The left is fond of saying that the filthy rich need to pay their fair share of taxes.  The study shows that the top 10% of wage earners are paying 71% of the federal taxes.    Those same 10% of wage earners earn only 48% of the total income.

Now, I am not saying there shouldn't be a progressive income tax.  The rich can afford to pay a higher share.  However, there is something inherently unfair, to use the left's terminology, about having nearly half of the population paying nothing.  In fact, the study shows that the bottom 40% actually end up making a profit. I always thought that was called welfare.