The income effects from 30 years of pursuing conservatism
Congratulations, conservative suckers. The rich are laughing at you all the way to the bank.
Keep diligently protecting the wealthy from taxation as your lot in life, and that of your dull progeny, shrinks.
NEW DATA SHOW THAT CALIFORNIA’S INCOME GAPS CONTINUE TO WIDEN
The total AGI of California’s personal income taxpayers rose by nearly $64 billion between 2006 and 2007, after adjusting for infl ation. Approximately three-quarters (76.8 percent) of this increase went to the wealthiest fi fth of taxpayers. A full 30.0 percent of AGI gains went to the top 1 percent of taxpayers, amounting to an additional $19.0 billion for fewer than 150,000 taxpayers. In contrast, 6.0 percent of the increase in AGI – $3.8 billion – went to the 3 million taxpayers with incomes in the middle fi fth of the distribution. To put these uneven gains in context, the average taxpayer in the top 1 percent experienced a $128,261 increase in AGI between 2006 and 2007, which was more than three times the total AGI of the average middle-income taxpayer in 2007 ($36,115).
