We ran across the enclosed item in Marilyn Vos Savant’s column in Parade magazine and were astounded by her reply. Our first thought was, we should ask Cecil the same question. However, we’re equally interested in your response to her answer. –Claire and Harold, San Rafael, California
Regarding Marilyn’s answer, I’ll just say that when you make sweeping claims like this you might want to back them up with a little detail. She’s not wrong though. As a general proposition, the wealthiest Americans do pay the bulk of the individual income taxes collected in the U.S. That’s a point worth making, since the belief that the rich pay zip while the little guy gets slugged is the impetus behind the “flat tax” proposal, the stupidest idea to come down the pike since pet rocks.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The top four-fifths of 1 percent of filers, who make $200,000 or more, paid 26 percent of the taxes.
–CECIL ADAMS
