Some useful facts to remember this holiday season, when you’re with family and friends who insist on telling you that taxes are just too damn high, and businesses are being hurt by the current uncertainty.
Number one, you can tell them most Americans pay much less in taxes than they would have 30 years ago. According to The New York Times, all the taxes you pay take a smaller share of income than they would have back in 1980. Upper and middle income households benefited the most, but lower income households were hit harder then and now.
The reasons: federal taxes have been cut for everyone, but state and local taxes increased for nearly everybody, and those hit lower income households harder.
The second fact to hit them with: corporate profits are at an all-time high according to a Commerce Department report, and financial corporations are pretty much responsible for all the growth. Meanwhile, average hourly pay for workers has dropped over the last year by a little less than 1 %.
MS NOW staff