While 43% of the population pay no federal income taxes, down from 47% in 2010, two-thirds of that 43% pay payroll taxes, leaving just 14.4% of the population that pay no federal income or payroll taxes. Of those, two-thirds are elderly with incomes below $20,000/year and one-quarter are nonelderly with equally low incomes. The remaining 1.3% of the population includes big givers of charity, those with large medical bills etc….
Tag Archives: Poverty
The Game of Life
If you follow these rules: complete a high school degree, work full time, and wait until 21 to get married and have a baby, then you have only a 2% chance of being in poverty and a 72% chance of joining the middle class (earning $55,000+). However, if you violate all three rules, you have a 77% of being poor and just a 4% chance of reaching the middle class.
Poor and Getting Poorer
Census reports that 97.3 million Americans are now classified as low-income; earning between 100% and 199% of the poverty level. Together with the 49.1 million who are at or below the poverty level, these groups total 146.4 million Americans; 48% of the population. Inflation adjusted average earning for the bottom fifth of the population have fallen from $16,788 in ’79 to almost $15,000, while earnings for the next fifth are flat at $37,000. Grim.