-rick- wrote:
And we effectively have a flat tax to within about 1.7%.

Why would the wealthy complain?

Because bitching about paying taxes is one thing that all
rich people have in common, and pandering to that is one way
of getting elected. Now if you tie that into a certain type
of bigotry, and imply that all poor people are on welfare
and "yore hard-earned dollars" are supporting a bunch of
lazy inner-city minorities so we should cut taxes NOW, then
you have a great formula for gaining a consistent 51% of the
vote.



Shares of
Average Total Total
cash income taxes
income now
----------------------------------------
Lowest 20% $ 10,400 3.4% 2.2%
Second 20% 21,200 7.0% 5.5%
Middle 20% 34,500 11.7% 10.5%
Fourth 20% 56,300 19.2% 19.0%
Next 15% 96,700 25.2% 26.5%
Next 4% 201,000 14.4% 15.3%
Top 1% 978,000 19.1% 20.8%
ALL $ 56,800 100.0% 100.0%

Careful, you might confuse them with facts.

The funny thing is that even the most ardent flat-taxers
agree on the desirability of allowing poor people some tax
relief... in other words, a progressive tax scale.... they
just don't agree on where to draw the line,

DSK