http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005 by the authors Thu, 23 Sep 2004 16:46:46 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/23/095520.php#comment-86911 No, the graph is fine. I'll be doing something else on taxes later, but for now will say that when you do a comparison of the percentage of income and percentage of taxes paid, there isn't that great a difference for those in the top tiers - the system isn't weighted as much as we are led to believe. No, the almost $1 trillion will largely go to the top 10% and higher in income. "Trickle down" is just voodoo economics claptrap that has been throughly discredited. Bottom line: Social Security benefits will be cut, and the amount cut will go to financial services firms, who will then spend it on management bonuses and invest it in places where they can make the most profit, like China and India. Really. 86911@blogcritics.org Thu, 23 Sep 2004 16:46:46 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/23/095520.php#comment-86903 Firstly your graphs conveniently do not show the the tax burden paid by the top 50% percentage, which sets up a fairness strawman from the get-go. Secondly, isn't a tax refund to the non-paying brackets also stealing from the worker's SSI pool? Lastly, you fail to mention that the $940 billion "windfall" returns to the economy via the 50% shareholding class, many of whom are workers and retirees. Bottom line is that Congress has been running a SSI ponzi scheme for decades as the Boomer train roared down the demographic tunnel. Who's kidding whom? 86903@blogcritics.org Thu, 23 Sep 2004 16:26:08 EDT