Fun With Statistics

Interested in winning friends and influencing people?

You can wow them with the following tid-bits from The Tax Foundation:

In 1980, the top 1% of taxpayers earned 8.5% of all adjusted gross income (AGI) and the bottom 50% of taxpayers earned 17.7% of AGI. In 2007, the top 1% of taxpayers earned 22.8% of all AGI and the bottom 50% of taxpayers earned 12.3% of AGI. Thus since 1980, the top 1% of taxpayers has gone from earning half of the AGI of the bottom 50% of taxpayers to nearly twice as much.

In 1980, the top 1% of taxpayers paid 19.1% of all federal income tax (FIT) and the bottom 50% of taxpayers paid 7.1% of FIT. In 2007, the top 1% of taxpayers paid 40.4% of all FIT and the bottom 50% of taxpayers paid 2.9% of FIT. Thus since 1980, the top 1% of taxpayers has gone from paying nearly 3 times the FIT of the bottom 50% of taxpayers to nearly 14 times as much.