Taxes: Who Needs a Tax Cut?

More on income inequality ...

The [following] chart shows the change in the various groups' pretax income since 1980. A household that has been at the 99.99th percentile of the distribution over this period — that is, making more money than 9,998 out of 10,000 other households and less money than one out of 10,000 — has more than quadrupled its pretax income. Today, this household is making $9.1 million. Income for a household at the median has risen only 13 percent since 1980. Today, it is making about $50,000. [Emphasis added].

And what about tax rates? They have aggravated the trends in pretax incomes. Not only have affluent households received the largest pretax raises, but they've also benefited from a much larger cut in their tax rates.

The following shows the total federal tax rate for different groups (including the income tax, the payroll tax, the estate tax and investment taxes).

For more, see Who Needs a Tax Cut? by David Leonhardt, December 3, 2010 at Economix Blog, New York Times.