<story><title>Top 1% of Income Earners pay 45% of California&apos;s Taxes</title><url>http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article71944477.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mdorazio</author><text>Of course they do!  Just look at the chart here: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sacbee.com&amp;#x2F;site-services&amp;#x2F;databases&amp;#x2F;article9349178.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sacbee.com&amp;#x2F;site-services&amp;#x2F;databases&amp;#x2F;article9349178...&lt;/a&gt; and the referenced franchise tax info.&lt;p&gt;I am really tired of seeing sensationalist headlines like these.  The top 1% of income earners earn an absolutely massive portion of all income in the state, but &lt;i&gt;only&lt;/i&gt; pay 45% of taxes.  We should be asking if that&amp;#x27;s enough, not implying that the wealthy are somehow propping up the state&amp;#x27;s finances when inequality is accelerating every year.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>11thEarlOfMar</author><text>What is missing is that the total income in the state in 2012 was $1.1 Trillion.&lt;p&gt;So the top 1% earned 28% of the income, but paid 45% of the total taxes:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ftb.ca.gov&amp;#x2F;aboutFTB&amp;#x2F;Tax_Statistics&amp;#x2F;Reports&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;Personal_Income_Tax&amp;#x2F;B-3.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ftb.ca.gov&amp;#x2F;aboutFTB&amp;#x2F;Tax_Statistics&amp;#x2F;Reports&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Top 1% of Income Earners pay 45% of California&apos;s Taxes</title><url>http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article71944477.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mdorazio</author><text>Of course they do!  Just look at the chart here: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sacbee.com&amp;#x2F;site-services&amp;#x2F;databases&amp;#x2F;article9349178.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sacbee.com&amp;#x2F;site-services&amp;#x2F;databases&amp;#x2F;article9349178...&lt;/a&gt; and the referenced franchise tax info.&lt;p&gt;I am really tired of seeing sensationalist headlines like these.  The top 1% of income earners earn an absolutely massive portion of all income in the state, but &lt;i&gt;only&lt;/i&gt; pay 45% of taxes.  We should be asking if that&amp;#x27;s enough, not implying that the wealthy are somehow propping up the state&amp;#x27;s finances when inequality is accelerating every year.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>entee</author><text>Wow that chart is astonishing, and in the context makes the headline a little misleading.&lt;p&gt;Having a such a small percent pay such a huge share is toxic. I&amp;#x27;ve heard people who pay high taxes say incredibly entitled things about &amp;quot;paying for&amp;quot; things. It destroys a sense of shared investment and purpose.&lt;p&gt;Clearly the solution has to be to ensure income is more evenly distributed, though I don&amp;#x27;t know how to do that exactly. Education and learning skills necessary for high paying industries would certainly help, but every time I hear that it feels like kind of a weak solution. That said, I don&amp;#x27;t really have a better one.&lt;p&gt;What are some interesting off the wall ideas for reducing income disequilibrium?</text></comment>