
NYT: How Expensive It Is to Be Poor - Nowyouknow
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/opinion/charles-blow-how-expensive-it-is-to-be-poor.html?_r=1
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drzaiusapelord
>According to the study, in 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on
average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes

This is purposely misleading. Yes, the poor do get hit with state/local taxes
(this may or may not include sales tax, gas tax, etc) but often will not pay
federal tax. That's on top of various aid programs like food stamps, section 8
rent assistance, etc. These articles are really disingenuous statistics, often
used to push an agenda.

A less politicized article here on who does and doesn't pay taxes:

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/09/18/w...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/09/18/who-
doesnt-pay-taxes-in-charts/)

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chc
While I agree that this article is frustratingly light on information, I don't
think that one is any better, and it's certainly no less political. The
article you linked isn't even attempting to quantify how much of their income
people pay in taxes. Its primary goal is just to show that some comments by a
particular politician reflected real statistics, not to analyze the actual lot
of the poor in society.

The only part that even goes near the issue just seems to be summing tax
rates, not considering how much of their money they actually have to pay (e.g.
I keep more of my income than summing tax rates would lead you to believe
because I have a 401k plan).

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tehwebguy
The WP article is really just a response to the uproar over Romney's comment
in the 2012 election at a fundraiser about how ~"47% of the country doesn't
pay tax", probably why they are focusing on "who pays" and not "how much"

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rayiner
The referenced Pew study is even more interesting: [http://www.people-
press.org/2015/01/08/the-politics-of-finan...](http://www.people-
press.org/2015/01/08/the-politics-of-financial-insecurity-a-democratic-tilt-
undercut-by-low-participation).

Some correlations I haven't seen before. The most secure voters were 3x as
likely to vote as the least secure. Preference for democrats was about the
same for every category of security, but preference for republicans was 3x
higher among the most secure (with the difference coming at the expense of
other/not sure).

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aianus
What exactly is preventing poor people from getting basic checking accounts?
They give those out to 12-year-olds with no assets and no credit history.

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yummyfajitas
If you owe tax debt the IRS can seize your bank account. So can a few other
parties, most notably state tax authorities and child support enforcement
agencies.

