From aj912@cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu Wed Apr 24 00:28:13 1991 Received: from cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu by cabot.dartmouth.edu (5.61a+YP/4.1) id AA04521; Wed, 24 Apr 91 00:28:08 -0400 Received: by cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu (5.65+ida+/CWRU-1.4-client) id AA16577; Wed, 24 Apr 91 00:28:02 -0400 (from aj912 for harelb@cabot.dartmouth.edu) Message-Id: <9104240428.AA16577@cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu> Date: Wed, 24 Apr 91 00:28:02 -0400 From: aj912@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Maurice Maschke III) To: tas11@cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu, axb21@cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu, ai257@cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu, ag793@cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu, ag206@cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu, af976@cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu, ab870@cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu, ab988@cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu, an780@cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu, myf@cwns2.INS.CWRU.Edu, K_MACARTHUR@UNHH.UNH.EDU, harelb@cabot.dartmouth.edu Subject: News Listing - 04/23/91A - Taxes and Poverty Reply-To: aj912@cleveland.Freenet.Edu Status: RO April 22, 1991 - USA Today -------------------------- POOR SPEND 14% ON TAXES: ------------------------ [...] Poor families must spend nearly 14% of their incomes on state and local taxes, while the USA's wealthiest taxpayers pay less than 8% of their earnings for those same taxes, a new study says. The main culprits, say Citizens for Tax Justice: state and local sales taxes. They fall more heavily on the poor. And some states don't have income taxes, which usually hit the rich harder. Please let me help clarify this point further, with the following facts. 1. The "Median" income for Whites in the U.S. in 1988 was at a level of $33,915. 2. The "Median" income for Blacks in the U.S. in 1988 was at a level of $19,329. ---------- - 1991 Information Please Almanac - Pg. 44 - taken from The Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Figures Computed as of March 1989. 3. In 1988 51,202 White people were listed as living below the poverty level, while only 9,864 were listed as Black living below the poverty level. The combined total of 63,743 were listed as being the total number living below the poverty level. ---------- - 1991 Information Please Almanac - Pg. 55 - taken from The Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. 4. The minimum amount of money that is required to be earned before 'income tax' must be filed is at the level of $5,300. If someone earns this amount or more, then they have to pay income tax. ---------- - 1991 Information Please Almanac - Pg. 72 - taken from The Internal Revenue Service. 5. If someone earns $10,000 they are going to pay $705 in taxes. 6. If someone earns $20,000 they are going to pay $2,205 in taxes. 7. If someone earns $30,000 they are going to pay $4,388 in taxes. 8. If someone earns $40,000 they are going to pay $7,188 in taxes. 9. If someone earns $50,000 they are going to pay $9,988 in taxes. ---------- - 1991 Information Please Almanac - Pg. 73 - taken from the Internal Revenue Service. Now, my point is that while many of us who have computers, nice clothes, fathers who have good jobs, or Mothers with good jobs, or have good jobs ourselves ... There is almost an entire population of our nation who, through no fault of their own, are paying the price for the bad tax laws that are written by the bulk of us with the money. And, to show you that I'm not completely stupid. If approximately 14 percent of the money of the nation's poor is being spent in taxes, that means that the working public is then going to have to contribute at least two times that amount to pay assistance to the these very families. I say 'two times' the amount for a good reason. One half of the 'two times' will go towards assistance for the welfare and human service programs to help these people. And then the other half of the 'two times' is going to go to towards replacing the lost monies that had to be used to bail out the poor who had to pay the taxes. In the opinion of two tax attornies this circumstance is just plain stupid. Do we have a problem. The typicle answer, as presented in the New York Times in December of 1990 [in a report from Harvard Medical School done by Dr. Brazleton] showed that when 50,000 of the nation's middle, upper-middle, and lower-upper class families were asked about the plight of the nation's poor, that the "... consensus was '... if they are poor, they deserve to be ..' ...". In my estimation, we certainly do have a problem. I contend that unless we begin to change the way that people are taxed in our society that we are going to have a society that is made of a very small minority of very well off people, while at the same time we have a huge chunk of our population who is living at, or close to the poverty level. This will occur as a result of more money having to be paid out because of how the tax laws are written, and the effect that these tax laws have upon the people who are least able to afford paying the tax. Often it is the people with money who want these taxes. Yet, often it is the people with little or no money who are forced to pay the taxes. When the level of poverty begins to touch more lives in the 'lower-middle', 'middle-middle', 'upper-middle' and 'lower-upper' classes, then is when I think that the tax laws will change. However, I leave this with you ... When was the last time that you sat down and wrote government about some of the serious problems that are facing our future generations? When was the last time that you lived in the streets with no food? We have to stand up, together now. We have to reform this problem now. From just this type of inequity we are seeing more and more children going hungry, and suffering, while other young people have nice lives, computers, VCR's, tape machines, and good food. Tell the kids in the Longwood Projects of Cleveland, Ohio about how nice life can be ... They have rats running loose in their yards! Maurice _Mickey_ Maschke (c) J. Wingate/Maurice Maschke - 1991 Permission is hereby granted to copy and use this document for purposes of Elucidation and Education. INTERNET: aj912@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Maurice Maschke) U.S. Mail: 12931 Shaker Blvd., #403, Cleve., O., 44120-2077 Voice Mail: 216-991-8749 - Box # 8749