three short responses 2 pages each
i have attached three different readings. so there will be three short responses (2 pages) for each readings.
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Democracy Dies in Darkness
For the first time in history, U.S. billionaires paid a
lower tax rate than the working class last year
By
Oct. 9, 2019 at 2:31 a.m. GMT+5:30
A new book-length study on the tax burden of the ultrarich begins with a startling finding: In 2018, for the first time in
history, America’s richest billionaires paid a lower effective tax rate than the working class.
“The Triumph of Injustice,” by economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman of the University of California at
Berkeley, presents a first-of-its kind analysis of Americans’ effective tax rates since the 1960s. It finds that in 2018, the
average effective tax rate paid by the richest 400 families in the country was 23 percent, a full percentage point lower
than the 24.2 percent rate paid by the bottom half of American households.
In 1980, by contrast, the 400 richest had an effective tax rate of 47 percent. In 1960, that rate was as high as 56
percent. The effective tax rate paid by the bottom 50 percent, by contrast, has changed little over time.
The analysis differs from many other published estimates of tax burdens by encompassing the totality of taxes
Americans pay: not just federal income taxes but also corporate taxes, as well as taxes paid at the state and local levels.
It also includes the burden of about $250 billion of what Saez and Zucman call “indirect taxes,” such as licenses for
motor vehicles and businesses.
The analysis, which was the subject of a column Monday in the New York Times, is also notable for the detailed
breakdown of the tax burden of not just the top 1 percent but also the top 0.1 percent, the top 0.01 percent and the 400
richest households.
The focus on the ultrarich is necessary, Saez and Zucman write, because those households control a disproportionate
share of the nation’s wealth: The top 400 families have more wealth than the bottom 60 percent of households, while
the top 0.1 percent own as much as the bottom 80 percent. The top 400 families are a “natural reference point,”
Zucman says, because the IRS publishes information on the top 400 taxpayers as a group, and other sources, such as
Forbes, track the fortunes of the 400 wealthiest Americans.
The relatively small tax burden of the super rich is the product of decades of choices — some deliberate, others the
result of indecisiveness or inertia — made by American lawmakers, Saez and Zucman say. Congress has repeatedly
slashed top income tax rates, for instance, and cut taxes on capital gains and estates. Lawmakers also have failed to
provide adequate funding for IRS enforcement efforts and allowed multinational companies to shelter their profits in
But the tipping point came in 2017, with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The legislation, championed by
President Trump and then-House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), was a windfall for the wealthy: It lowered the top
Christopher Ingraham
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/06/opinion/income-tax-rate-wealthy.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fdavid-leonhardt&action=click&contentCollection= ®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/02/08/wealth-concentration-returning-levels-last-seen-during-roaring-twenties-according-new-research/?itid=lk_inline_manual_10
https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-top-400-individual-income-tax-returns-with-the-largest-adjusted-gross-incomes
https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/#38ba58f77e2f
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/02/27/top-tax-rate-has-been-cut-six-times-since-usually-with-democrats-help/?itid=lk_inline_manual_13
https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/02/11/a-95-year-history-of-maximum-capital-gains-tax-rat.aspx
https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/2017-tax-law-weakens-estate-tax-benefiting-wealthiest-and-expanding-avoidance
https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-sorry-but-its-just-easier-and-cheaper-to-audit-the-poor
https://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/AJZ2017b
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/15/the-final-gop-tax-bill-is-complete-heres-what-is-in-it/?itid=lk_inline_manual_15
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-tax-bill-evolved-benefits-for-corporations-and-the-wealthy-grew/2017/12/01/17f1478e-d6c0-11e7-b62d-d9345ced896d_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_15
https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/christopher-ingraham/
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p p y ( ), y p
income tax bracket and slashed the corporate tax rate.
By 2018, according to Saez and Zucman, the rich were already enjoying the fruits of that legislation: The average
effective tax rate paid by the top 0.1 percent of households dropped by 2.5 percentage points. The benefits promised by
the bill’s supporters — higher rates of growth and business investment and a shrinking deficit — have largely failed to
materialize.
Not all economists accept Saez and Zucman’s analysis. It is based in part on their previous work, along with French
economist Thomas Piketty, on the distribution of wealth and income in American society. Other economists have
generated estimates of that distribution that show smaller disparities between the nation’s haves and have-nots. Saez,
Zucman and Piketty have defended their research and maintain that their methods are the most accurate.
On the question of tax burden, Jason Furman, an economics professor at Harvard University who chaired the White
House Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, noted that Saez and Zucman did not include
refundable tax credits, such as the earned-income tax credit (EITC), in their analysis.
The credit, which is intended to encourage low-income families to work, “is part of the tax code,” Furman said. A
person who paid $1,000 in federal income taxes and then received a $1,500 credit would have a total federal tax
burden of -$500, but Furman said that under Saez and Zucman’s analysis, that person would instead show a burden of
$0. That result would make total tax burdens at the lower end of the income spectrum appear higher than they are.
“The best estimates indicate that the tax system is progressive — with the rich paying a higher tax rate than everyone
else,” Furman said.
Zucman countered that his and Saez’s analysis considers the EITC and other credits like it as transfers of income, akin
to food stamps or jobless benefits, rather than tax provisions.
“If you start counting some transfers as negative taxes, it is not clear where to stop,” he said via email. “Do you treat
the EITC as a negative tax? veterans’ benefits? medicaid? defense spending? … There’s no clear line and the results
become arbitrary.”
There is general agreement among economists, however, that the tax burden of the rich has fallen considerably in
recent decades.
“The rich definitely pay less in taxes than they did in the past and less than they should,” Furman said.
The bulk of Saez and Zucman’s new book explores how that happened, and how the trend might be reversed.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-tax-bill-evolved-benefits-for-corporations-and-the-wealthy-grew/2017/12/01/17f1478e-d6c0-11e7-b62d-d9345ced896d_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_15
‘Not Much’: What Macroeconomic Data Say About the Impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/99455/how_different_studies_measure_income_inequality_0
http://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/PSZ2019
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/earned-income-tax-credit-facts-statistics-and-context/
The standard data shows that the tax system is overall progressive. This chart combines CBO estimates for federal taxes with ITEP estimates for state & local taxes. Federal income taxes highly progressive, when you add in payroll/state/local/etc. is still progressive but less so. pic.twitter.com/WTOgm58Fyo
— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) October 7, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/21/google-chrome-has-become-surveillance-software-its-time-switch/?itid=lk_inline_manual_34
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/21/google-chrome-has-become-surveillance-software-its-time-switch/?itid=lk_inline_manual_34
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/gulp-howd-we-get-to-the-22-cocktail/2015/02/13/c374695c-b192-11e4-827f-93f454140e2b_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_36
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cocktail profit margins are 15 to 25 percent.
How we got here: Gene-edited farm animals
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/12/17/feature/gene-edited-farm-animals-are-coming-will-we-eat-them/?itid=lk_inline_manual_38