September 25, 2012--Lucky Duckies
Twenty years ago the estimable Wall Street Journal began to refer to Americans who pay no federal income tax as Lucky Duckies. Here from the Journal is how they described them--
They rail against Democrats, Obama especially, for waging class warfare--that they believe in "redistribution." What they mean is that Obama and his colleagues want to take money away from the successful makers and redistribute it to the irresponsible and lazy takers. In dog whistle terms--people of color.
There are of course a number of problems with this GOP analysis.
First, fewer than 47 percent pay no federal income tax--it is closer to 38 percent--and the majority of them pay Medicare and Social Security payroll taxes (at a rate of about 18%). Higher, in percentage terms than Mitt Romney who paid just 13.9% in 2010 and 14.1% last year. Most of the rest are the working poor who hold a series of part-time jobs that add up to less than $20,000 a year in taxable income--thus they are working hard but earn too little to pay federal income tax. I suspect that these working folks making less than $20,000 would be happy to pay income taxes if they could find work that paid them, say, $45,000.
Then there are members of the armed services, veterans on disability, college students, and the elderly who make up most of the rest of Romney's Lucky Duckies.
Of course there are those who are ripping off the unemployment and food stamps system just as there are high flyers making millions a year ripping off the tax and financial regulation system. If they get caught, which is how we learn about them, they are occasionally prosecuted and sent to jail. The Enron executives, Bernie Madoff, and other white-collar perpetrators are evidence that it is not just people on welfare who cheat.
Second, there is the redistribution charge. There in fact is a lot of that. Taxes build highways that benefit those with cars and the trucking industry. Taxes from the middle and upper classes pay for school lunch programs. Airports are built with tax money and this benefits business and leisure travelers as well and tens of thousands of companies that ship products by air freight. In general Americans are OK with these forms of distribution.
On the other hand, tax policy itself contributes significantly to redistribution. Redistribution upwards. Every tax loophole and deduction benefits only those who make money via capital gains; hedge funds; and deductions for things such as mortgage interest, property, state, and local income taxes; or receive federal farm and oil depreciation subsides.
As a result, the top 5-10 percent have seen their incomes and assists soar since the 1980s while the middle class and working poor have had to work harder to stand still.
But more than money and assets are involved in this social-Darwinian economy. People's lives are literally at stake.
Reported prominently in last Friday's New York Times is new research that shows that the rich are living longer than the poor. In fact, since 1990, over just twenty-two years, America's least educated whites, and lowest income people in general, have seen their life expectancy drop by four years. In other words, the poor are dying on average four years sooner than everyone else.
This too is redistribution, but of the cruelest sort.
Who are these lucky duckies? They are the beneficiaries of tax policies that have expanded the personal exemption and standard deduction and targeted certain voter groups by introducing a welter of tax credits for things like child care and education. When these escape hatches are figured against income, the result is either a zero liability or a liability that represents a tiny percentage of income.Mitt Romney isn't using this contemptuous language--he is leaving that to Rupert Murdoch's minions--but his now infamous 47 percent drips with the same kind of contempt. The Republican language, cleaned up a bit, refers to what they see to be the two classes in America as the makers and the takers.
They rail against Democrats, Obama especially, for waging class warfare--that they believe in "redistribution." What they mean is that Obama and his colleagues want to take money away from the successful makers and redistribute it to the irresponsible and lazy takers. In dog whistle terms--people of color.
There are of course a number of problems with this GOP analysis.
First, fewer than 47 percent pay no federal income tax--it is closer to 38 percent--and the majority of them pay Medicare and Social Security payroll taxes (at a rate of about 18%). Higher, in percentage terms than Mitt Romney who paid just 13.9% in 2010 and 14.1% last year. Most of the rest are the working poor who hold a series of part-time jobs that add up to less than $20,000 a year in taxable income--thus they are working hard but earn too little to pay federal income tax. I suspect that these working folks making less than $20,000 would be happy to pay income taxes if they could find work that paid them, say, $45,000.
Then there are members of the armed services, veterans on disability, college students, and the elderly who make up most of the rest of Romney's Lucky Duckies.
Of course there are those who are ripping off the unemployment and food stamps system just as there are high flyers making millions a year ripping off the tax and financial regulation system. If they get caught, which is how we learn about them, they are occasionally prosecuted and sent to jail. The Enron executives, Bernie Madoff, and other white-collar perpetrators are evidence that it is not just people on welfare who cheat.
Second, there is the redistribution charge. There in fact is a lot of that. Taxes build highways that benefit those with cars and the trucking industry. Taxes from the middle and upper classes pay for school lunch programs. Airports are built with tax money and this benefits business and leisure travelers as well and tens of thousands of companies that ship products by air freight. In general Americans are OK with these forms of distribution.
On the other hand, tax policy itself contributes significantly to redistribution. Redistribution upwards. Every tax loophole and deduction benefits only those who make money via capital gains; hedge funds; and deductions for things such as mortgage interest, property, state, and local income taxes; or receive federal farm and oil depreciation subsides.
As a result, the top 5-10 percent have seen their incomes and assists soar since the 1980s while the middle class and working poor have had to work harder to stand still.
But more than money and assets are involved in this social-Darwinian economy. People's lives are literally at stake.
Reported prominently in last Friday's New York Times is new research that shows that the rich are living longer than the poor. In fact, since 1990, over just twenty-two years, America's least educated whites, and lowest income people in general, have seen their life expectancy drop by four years. In other words, the poor are dying on average four years sooner than everyone else.
This too is redistribution, but of the cruelest sort.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:10 AM
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