Yes, but federal withholding, which was how the federal government went from not only mostly taxing the top income earners to taxing everyone by literally keeping the money before you see it… was enacted in 1943. The trick was that Americans, if they didn’t have to actually write a check to pay for their taxes, wouldn’t realize how much they and their employers were being taxed on their labor.
Read slower…
Most Americans don’t even count the money employers pay on behalf of their employees. That is a cost of labor that would otherwise go to the American worker. Instead it goes to the government and is rigged up this way so that the employee never even sees or feels it. But it is a real cost of employment that is converted from wages to taxes, behind the scenes.
This crap all started in 1943 to supposedly fund WWII. WWII is over, but there is nothing more permanent than a temporary government program.
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If we all had to write a check to the IRS at the end of the year for all the taxes they take from both us and our employers on behalf of us… there would be a revolution. Serfs (one step above slaves) only paid their masters 15%. I aspire to be treated as a serf by my government.
Yes, it changed from a post paid system to a prepaid system. To my knowledge, the new system was never meant to be temporary.
It’s not just a prepaid system. The employer is now charged for every hour an employee works. That increases the cost of employing an American. And that cost is a transfer of wages taken from the employee to the government through the employer, behind the scenes.
Only the top 7% paid income tax in 1940. By 1944, 64% did. And that liar Elizabeth Warren says her wealth tax will only affect the top 2%.
Your chart is a bit redundant since a major portion of urban populations are provided food, clothing, and health care from the tax dollars of others. In this sense, these people pay little or nothing for food, clothing, and health care while taxpayers, already paying for their own, pay for theirs as well.
New taxes during a recession. Brilliant.
Hitting the rich will not bring up the bottom. In fact, it will stagnate our economy further. Simply said, you cannot collect tax from the unemployed.
In 2021, 57% percent of Americans paid no tax at all. Let’s not forget our brilliant EITC (wealth redistribution).
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Let’s ask the question why are there homeless indigent in large numbers, at times when unemployment is at historic lows? There was a period just before and just after sars-cov-2 with historic unemployment low, yet homelessness marched up regardless.
Where is the disconnect in productive engagement in the economy?
Who’s not part of the economy, who is? I’ll note one huge pattern: immigrants have dramatically higher workforce participation.
And what’s the size of the underground (under the table) economy? Last I read that was over 10%.
I would be interested in that determination.
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Simple. The Homeless and indigent are not unemployed. Unemployment numbers only reflect the percentage of people who are willing to work that are not employed. Our current unemployment rate is low because there are many lazy people not looking for work. 4% unemployment does not mean that 96% of the people are working.
I’m pretty sure you already knew that though. So maybe you are asking a deeper, more philosophical question?
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