100% of People With No Mortgage Payment Rate their Mortgage Payment as "Fair"
Apparently, according to one survey, a majority of people think their taxes are "fair"
The 60% is an interesting figure. It also roughly corresponds to the percentage of people who get more government benefits back than they pay in taxes:
So 60% of the people vote themselves goodies from the other 40%, and coincidently, 60% of the people think the arrangement is fair.
noahpoah:
I get the point you're trying to make, but surely you know that you haven't established that these are the same 60%.
April 16, 2008, 5:56 amfranco:
I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that they're not the Top 20% of wage earners.
April 16, 2008, 6:26 amSir Rupert Studwell:
bottom 60% of households != 60% of people. Still, its always worth pointing out just how progressive US effective tax rates are. It's always tiring when you see these lefty types demonstrating the alleged regressiveness of the bush tax cuts by observing that those on higher incomes got more in absolute terms than those lower down the income scale. They really have no shame.
April 16, 2008, 6:40 amJoshK:
What's that line about democracy being more than "two wolves and a sheep sitting down and voting on what's for dinner"?
April 16, 2008, 6:52 amDKH:
I don't think the author's point was that the same 60% of people receive government benefits in excess of taxes _and_ think that the tax system is fair.
What I take from this is that not all people in the Gallup poll are equivalent. Some of them net paid to the government; some net received. Both groups' feelings are combined to get the 60%, but we don't know the conditional probabilities (that is, given that someone net pays to the government, do they regard the income tax they pay as fair?).
April 16, 2008, 8:49 amJaylieWoW:
@Sir Rupert Studwell:
Yes, but in a true REPUBLIC the wolves are sitting down with a well armed sheep!
April 16, 2008, 11:05 amJaylieWoW:
@Sir Rupert Studwell:
Yes, but in a true REPUBLIC the wolves are sitting down with a well armed sheep!
April 16, 2008, 11:06 ampasserby:
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch, liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote" usually attributed to Ben Franklin, I believe.
April 16, 2008, 1:19 pm