Some of the best things in life are free,
But you can give them to the birds and bees.
When we live in a city or village, I dress up for Halloween. In years past
I have been a pirate giving out doubloons -- large, aluminum tokens from
the Mardi Gras parades. Other times, I put on the tuxedo and hand out
money -- demonetized paper and coins from failed governments. In 2008,
in the wake of the news, I gave out stock certificates to all of the adults
who also dressed up for Halloween. "What's this worth?" they asked.
"Cheaper than candy!" I replied.
In point of fact:
The top 1% of wage earners pay over one-fifth (21.4%) of all income taxes collected.
The richest 5% pay well over one-third of all income taxes (37.4%).
Nearly one-half of the taxes paid come from 10% of the tax-payers.
The broad middle class, 60% of the working people represent only about 17% of the taxes collected.
Those figures are from the Congressional Budget Office.