The 1% ers

Some curious numbers from the IRS:

The top one percent of earners in the United States includes 1.4 million tax returns. The threshold is 343,927, down from 410,000 in 2007.

Households making at least 154,633 were in the top 5%, 112,124 in the top 10%, 66,000for the top 25% and 32,00 the top 50%.

Total income in the top 1% fell 21% from 2008 to 2009 while the average tax rate for the group went from 23.3% to 24%. Total income for the bottom 50% fell 2% in the same period.

The national average effective tax rate across all income levels was 11.06

After tax income for the upper 1% almost tripled from 1979 to 2007. The middle group was up 40% and the bottom 20% was up 18%. These would be good numbers if the currency value was constant.

"The 1%" used to be a bad ass motorcycle club, now it's dentists, neurosurgeons and bond traders. And these groupings are surprisingly close; it's doubtful many in the country would think earning 343,000 dollars would put you in the top 1% of the country. And these are returns, not necessarily individuals, so husband and wife in a successful small business might easily make these numbers. I doubt that many people think of the lower end of this 1% as their enemy and the movie stars , power hitters and kindly old curmudgeon philanthropists on the upper end make tough targets too. "Envy is sadness at the success of others." Sadness. It's a true individual emotion but among some cultures, it may be hard to institutionalize.