Bruh! We are Taxing the Rich

I am always amazed at what people can get away with saying.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is practicing her capitalistic rights by selling merch with the slogan: "Tax the Rich."  Despite having a degree in economics from Boston University, it is not clear how she justifies her position.  Maybe 5 years of bartending, working long double shifts and working her fingers to the bone, before becoming the woke darling of the left and liberal media, caused her to loose whatever abilities she had to understand facts and use logic to make a valid point.

I used the recent CBO Income Distribution Data to look at what US households are making in income (includes all income including government transfers) and paying in taxes.  What did I find?

The top 20% of households makes 51.1% of all of the US income and pays 67.5% of all of the taxes.  The second highest quintile makes 19.07% and pays 16.8%.  The middle quintile 13.8% and 9.1%.  The second to lowest makes 9.8% and pays 4.8%.  And the bottom quintile makes 5.6% of the nations income and pays only 1.8% of the nations taxes.

Note that this is just the Federal level of taxes.  There are additional taxes, progressive in most states, that are also being paid. 

Below you can see we are already taxing the rich at much higher tax rates than other quintiles of income.  How much higher does AOC want? 

AOC - Bruh - We are already taxing the rich!

Maybe we ought to start thinking "Fair Share" is treating everyone equally (flat tax.)

What is unfair if someone makes twice as much as another by working twice as hard, twice as smart or twice as long or even gets twice as lucky and then pays twice as much in taxes.  Isn't that fair?  Treating everyone's fruits of their labor equally, taking the same percentage?   Give everyone the same incentive to work harder, longer, smarter to create and keep more value.

We can take care of those who need it by redesigning our social safety nets for unlucky individuals recognizing that there will be lazy people traying to take advantage of them, to guarantee adequate food, shelter and health care and good education.  Offer this safety net to all.  Tax all income the same (wages, capital gains, dividends, inheritance, etc.).  That sounds fair to me.