# Do the rich pay their fair share?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-rich-pay-their-fair-share/921817>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 29, 2020, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-rich-pay-their-fair-share/921817 "2020-09-29T15:25:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 101

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**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-rich-pay-their-fair-share/921817/101 "2020-12-01T15:55:55Z")

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For anybody still interested in this topic, I found another really fascinating page and set of charts:

> **[Tax Rates vs. Tax Revenues](https://www.mercatus.org/research/data-visualizations/tax-rates-vs-tax-revenues)**
>
> This series of charts by Antony Davies illustrates the relationship between tax rates and tax revenues.

I’m going to endeavor to get each of the charts to display here. Buckle up 😉

[![](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-capital-gains-rate-1-JPG.jpg) ](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-capital-gains-rate-1-JPG.jpg)

[![](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-effective-corporate-rate-2-PDF.jpg) ](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-effective-corporate-rate-2-PDF.jpg)

[![](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-social-security-and-medicare-3-PDF.jpg) ](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-social-security-and-medicare-3-PDF.jpg)

[![](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-average-marginal-income-tax-rates-4-PDF_0.jpg) ](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-average-marginal-income-tax-rates-4-PDF_0.jpg)

[![](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-marginal-income-tax-rates-5-PDF.jpg) ](https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/d7/ADavies-marginal-income-tax-rates-5-PDF.jpg)

What’s my point ?

Same as the point I made earlier: as a nation, we talk a whole lot about the three or four knobs and levers before us, and have endless debates about where they should be set in order to achieve our public policy and economic aims.

But those knobs and levers don’t seem to be doing what we think they’re doing.

We’re not moving the needle.

And – to my original point – we can’t even take a quantitative look at why we’re not moving the needle, because we’re not given enough top-level data to evaluate how much each level of earners should be affecting this equation.

My hypothesis _is_ that talk of marginal rates and capital gains rates does result in the pro forma shrieking and clutching of pearls, but that the people we _think_ would be most affected … aren’t worried … because they _know_ they won’t be affected by the kinds of changes to tax policy that are _ever really_ talked about.

Because the knobs and levers that affect _them_ are really contained in the 55,000+ page Tax Code, much/most of which has little to no effect on the overwhelming majority of taxpayers.

My wife and I are watching “The Crown.” I was curious how much the British taxpayers are currently paying to support the monarchy. [**About USD86,000,000 a year**](https://www.statista.com/chart/18569/total-cost-of-the-uks-royal-family-by-year/#:~:text=Taxpayers%20in%20the%20United%20Kingdom,on%20the%20previous%20financial%20year.).

Kind of a lot.

But maybe not by comparison. I suspect the cost to the US taxpayer of subsidizing _our_ monarchy is orders of magnitude more.

Maybe this is, in part, why _we_ can’t have nice things.

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