[caslon]

The top 1% of people make 20.7% of the country's income. Given progressive tax rates, they should be paying a lot more than 40% of Federal income tax revenue, but rates don't scale enough, and aren't lax enough on other classes.

[listenallyall]

Can you explain your reasoning behind "they should be paying a lot more"? I kept hearing that they didn't pay their "fair share" when in fact it appears they pay double. It just seems like whatever they actually pay, measured in dollars or as a percentage, will always be widely regarded as not enough.

[roenxi]

There are a couple of key phrases in politics that get used because there is no actual justification. "Fair" is one of them. It is impossible to achieve fairness in the tax system under any circumstances, it is always taking from someone who - from the fact that it isn't voluntary - we can assume quite likely disagrees with how the money is about to be used. Taxes are fundamentally arbitrary.

So in practice, if "fair" is used in politics the appropriate reading is often as a euphemism for "I think we have the numbers to push this interpretation of the world on people; it'll be good for us".

[tomlockwood]

Could you help me understand why an individual with one billion, needs two? At what point would you accept that someone has more money than they'd reasonably need? And if you just thought of a maximum amount, then, wouldn't the acceptable tax rate over that amount, be 100%?

[ambicapter]

> when in fact it appears they pay double

They very obviously don't make only twice as much money as the bottom 80%, so how is that equal in the slightest?

[shakna]

The top 1% aren't the billionaires. It's also not most of the millionaires. It's people earning a tiny bit less than 700k a year.

The suggestion is simply that the top 0.1% pay more - as they will be little affected by it.

[refurb]

What is the right percentage for the 1% to pay? State a percent.

I keep here this “the rich should pay more”, but rarely do I hear a number.

[specialist]

Whatever it takes to restore 1960s level of inequity.

By whatever measure works, eg old school gini coefficient or something more modern.

You're right though: food fights over decimal points and gaming the rules nicely obfuscates any constructive debate about what kind of society we want.

[zelon88]

Tax every dollar over $999,000,000 at 100%.

[intended]

50% tax.