COUNTERPOINT: The rich need to pay more taxes

COUNTERPOINT

COUNTERPOINT: The rich need to pay more taxes

DEAN BAKER InsideSources.com (TNS)
Apr 15, 2025
Apr 15, 2025

The share of before-tax income going to the richest 1% of taxpayers has more than doubled in the last half-century. This massive upward redistribution of income was primarily a result of the ability of the rich to structure the economy in ways that benefited them: trade agreements, longer and stronger patent monopolies and a hugely bloated financial industry.

This was not enough for the nation’s rich. The wealthiest also demanded that politicians give them lower tax rates. And the politicians have responded to this demand from their wealthy campaign contributors.

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Dean Baker is a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He wrote this for .

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