TRICKLE-UP ECONOMICS?

Corporations and the very wealthy have played “Robin Hood in Reverse” for years, and our collective silence encourages it to continue. We can no longer afford to naively sit back and accept it. We must communicate our discontent to our elected officials. But, we have to do it civilly and armed with incontrovertible facts. If we don’t know the facts, we must learn them.

Look at Some Taxation Facts:

Almost everyone has an opinion about the possible extension of the Bush Tax Cuts. What most people don’t understand is that the rich get the benefits of middle class tax cuts, even if theirs expire. In fact, “middle class” tax cuts benefit richer Americans more than they benefit the middle class. Because of a quirk in the system, a family making more than $1 million will receive more than five times the tax cut benefit of a family making $50,000 to $75,000. And, that’s the savings they would receive if the Bush Tax Cuts are not extended!

Of course, if the Bush Tax Cuts (BTCs) were extended to all income levels, including the highest ones, the wealthiest Americans would save even more.

They neglect to mention that, with the Bush Tax Cuts, the rich also received:
• reduced inheritance taxes until they got to zero for 2010, regardless of how much the inheritance was.
This tax, if the BTCs were extended, would return for those who inherit $1 M or more and be taxed at 55%. In 2010, this tax had no limitation and the tax rate was zero—which is where many of the richest want it to stay! This reduction also benefited the extremely wealthy much more than anyone else.

• reduced AMT (Adjusted Minimum Tax).
This tax was designed so that the rich pay a certain “minimum” tax since many could escape tax liability through exemptions and deductions. That amount was lowered with the Bush Tax Cuts also—another reduction that favors the richest few.

• a reduction for capital gains taxes (tax on profits from selling stocks).
Capital gains taxes are ones that are paid on profits from selling stocks, etc. Who owns most of the U.S. Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds?
The top 1% of Americans owned almost 51% of U.S. Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds in 2007.
The top 10% of Americans owned 90.3% of them.
That left only 9.7% for bottom 90% of us!
So, who benefited from this one? Yep—additional tax breaks that primarily benefit only the very, very wealthy.


From 1940 to 2001, income tax receipts dropped from 60% to 15% for corporations.
In the same time period, individual income tax receipts rose from 40% to 85%.
Ours soared, while corporations had theirs lowered—drastically.

Can you say, “trickle-up economics?”