You can’t really cut taxes for poor people because they don’t pay taxes in the first place. Half this country pays 97% of the taxes. The top 1% collect 17% of US income but pay 45% of all income taxes. The top 5% pay 64%. The top 20% pay 84%, but earn only 51% of the income. The bottom 40% actually collect more in credits than they pay in taxes. Tax rates are even worse;
. The bottom quintile paid 4.3 percent of income in taxes,
. The top quintile paid 25.8 percent of income in taxes,
. The top decile paid 27.5 percent of income in taxes,
. The top 5 percent paid 29.0 percent of income in taxes, and
. The top 1 percent paid 31.2 percent of income in taxes.
All those jobs you think no one should take pay real income. Better jobs are a great idea, but shit jobs are far better than no jobs. Those wonderful high wage Seattle jobs? There are a lot fewer people employed there than in the past, because customers aren’t actually willing to absorb the additional costs.
Your $14 an hour idea ignores one basic truth. When people have more money, the price of everything goes up right along with the money supply. Do you really believe you can pay people 25% higher wages and the business owners aren’t going to increase prices to pay the higher labor costs?
When Joe Blow gets off work on Friday evening and he’s trying to figure out where he can afford to take his wife to dinner, the first thing he remembers is that if he goes to the suburbs for dinner, he might have cash leftover to buy lunch a few times next week so he doesn’t have to brown bag it.
You want higher wages? Improve our educational system so that even disadvantaged kids get enough of an education they actually possess skills employers need to buy. All the manipulation of wages/prices won’t change that reality.
Oh, and about that 4.7% unemployment rate. Under Obama, the labor participation rate, the percentage of the population actually working, dropped to it’s lowest point in 45 years. For those millions, pointing at Obama’s new unemployment math didn’t change a thing. They voted for Trump. Trump may not be able to help them, but he at least acknowledged their existence.
Here’s an addendum. Attached is data from the IRS for 2014. 35% Of filers paid NO income tax, and collected more than ninety billion in tax credits.
