The NY Times ran an article titled “Complaints Aside, Most Face Lower Tax Burden Than in 1980”
The thesis of the article was predictable NYT: If you’re working, cough up more dough to the Feds and stop complaining … tax rates were higher in 1980.
Personally, I find that argument to be unmoving. I prefer to compare to 1860 when there was no Federal income tax.
- Factoid: In 1862, in order to support the Civil War effort, Congress enacted the nation’s first income tax law.
The article also lobs the obligatory “57% think taxes should be raise on the rich”, i.e. anybody making a tad more than I am.
And the article references a Gallup survey that guarantees a chuckle: the nation is evenly divided between those who think their taxes are too high and those who think that their taxes are just about right.
Translation: Folks paying little or no Fed income tax think taxes are about right. Note: There’s that pesky 47% number again.
C’mon NYT, you can do better than this.
= = = = =
On the plus side …
… the article links to a great interactive infographic that slices tax data since 1980 along key measures.
It’s worth playing around with … both for the info and because it’s a cool analytical tool.
* * * * *
Follow on Twitter @KenHoma >> Latest Posts
The Homa Files 