02-18-2024, 04:11 PM
(02-18-2024, 01:47 PM)michaelsean Wrote: It looks like the top 1% starts at over a little over $1 million? Is that correct? Lots of seniors have that amount in their home and 401K or IRA or whatever. These aren’t super rich people running around pulling the levers of government, and a lot of people who do not have that much eventually will.
I've seen different numbers, but most commonly I think on an annual basis it's about $400k for an individual annually, and closer to $500k for a married couple. But most people are only in this group once or twice in their career thanks to a company sale (equity) or a one-time bonus from landing the whale of a lifetime.
I think the better measure is net worth, and from that perspective I think 1% is @ $10M.
The popular target for taxes always seem to be "making over $250k". And that's far from rich, especially when you consider the COL in the cities where many people making that money live. These are also people reaching the pinnacle of their earnings power, maybe the last 10 years of their career if they're lucky. So we're talking about soaking these people at a time in their career where they're finally at a point to start accumulating some real wealth. But, nope, the tax man cometh.
People always rant about "trickle down economics", but in my experience - and plenty of research backs it up - TAXES almost always do "trickle down". Do people still really believe that raising taxes and costs on Amazon will result in lower margins for Amazon? But there's research on that, too, that the less transparent actual tax burdens are the less people notice and complain.
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