Wall Street Traders: Ugh!

This started out as a leftist's political blog so I assume that most who read here are not Wall Street Traders, but even if all Wall Street were reading, I don't care.  I truly despise people who make money from money.  I'd rather dine with someone who works with his hands or provides a needed service to make our lives more secure and productive: a garbage collection, a firefighter, a carpenter, plumber, bar tender, electrician, than the CEO of one of America's "too big" to fail banks.  I suppose my dislike has a lot to do with their misconceptions of what they do and what value they bring to the lives of others--they create nothing that aids in the advancement of the human condition. Thank God for those who protect us from garbage overload, stove fires, violent predators, and stopped up toilets.

A few days ago I was in my favorite local bar having a drink and a young man (in his early 30's I'd say) sat next to me and started a conversation on the quality of wine he was drinking. I'm a friendly person so responded and we began to talk of many things and as usual, with me at least, got around to politics.  At first he seemed very nice and even when he told me he was a Wall Street Trader I still liked him, particularly since when he received or made cell phone calls he went to a private area of the bar rather than disturb the rest of us. Of course, that may have had less to do with courtesy and more to do with the need for privacy to talk about trades.

Not sure how we finally got around to the 1%, but he informed me with the usual certainty of such people that the richest 1% of the country paid 95% of the income taxes. I'm not much of a numbers person but that was clearly an outrageous claim and I told him so. So he moved it down to 80%, and when I told him, again, that this figure was also not true, he responded aggressively that the bottom 20% of Americans don't pay any federal taxes. I'm not shy in political discussions so I did tell him that the discussion had not centered on the bottom 20%, so whatever they pay or don't pay had nothing to do with his original assertion (doesn't anyone study logic in school these days?).  Anyway, he left shortly after and, hopefully, won't be back, but before leaving he stated that people like him will leave this country for Singapore or some other area of the world where taxes are lower. And good riddance, but it won't happen.  Further on that in a another blog.

I am a curious person and I did want to know the percentage that the top 1% paid in federal taxes in the last year. The number is obviously not 95%, nor 80%, but surprisingly, it's quite low: 22.2%.  It's certainly true that the bottom 20 percent don't pay federal taxes but those who are employed in that 20% (about 10%) actually pay a much higher percentage of their incomes in state and local taxes than do the very rich.  My question, when and how do we rid ourselves of these creatures, who contribute nothing to our society, and just as important rid them of their self-serving belief that they are the ones holding the economy together and not the reality that they are the causes of most of our economic problems--not all mind you, but certainly a large number of them. At least the next time I run into one I'll have the figures ready, and for those who know me, you can be sure I will knock him (or her) over the head with them!