Paying more than their 'fair share'

Amid some calls to punish the rich (along with some in the middle class whom politicians like to label "the rich"), a scholar at Stanford University's Hoover Institution pointed out some facts that may trouble those who are eager to accuse the wealthy of not paying their "fair share."

Deroy Murdock noted that according to 2008 IRS data:

• The top 1 percent of taxpayers earn 20 percent of our country's adjusted gross income, but they pay 38 percent of all federal income taxes.

• The top 5 percent earn 34.7 percent of adjusted gross income but pay 58.7 percent of the taxes.

• And the top 10 percent earn 45.8 percent of adjusted gross income but pay 69.9 percent of the taxes.

• Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers earn 12.8 percent of adjusted gross income but pay only 2.7 percent of all federal income taxes.

Well, OK, critics would argue, but the rich still don't do much to help others with voluntary donations to charity, do they?

Wrong again. As Murdock notes:

• A Bank of America-Merrill Lynch study found that 98.2 percent of respondents earning above $200,000 in 2009 made financial contributions to charity. In contrast, 64.6 percent of the general population donated to charity.

• Nearly 79 percent of wealthy Americans served as volunteers with charitable groups that year, compared with only 26.8 percent of the population as a whole.

• The time donated by the wealthy to charitable groups in 2009 averaged 307 hours, roughly equal to 38 eight-hour shifts.

"High net worth households play an important role in the philanthropic landscape," the study found.

"They give between 65 and 70 percent of all individual giving and between 49 and 53 percent of giving from all sources, which includes giving from corporations, foundations, and both living and deceased individuals."

And that does not begin to account for the economic good done by "the rich" - many just small-business owners - through job creation that pays millions of salaries!

Considering these facts, is it possible that some who condemn the rich are motivated by envy and irrational hostility - not by real concern for the poor?

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