It is time to swing for what's left of the Candy Mountain piñatas!
Click to enlarge.
Can't tax 100% of wage and salary disbursements? Who would have guessed!
Click to enlarge.
Can't spend 100% of wage and salary disbursements? Who would have guessed!
Candy Mountain jokes never get old to me. Go figure.
See Also:
Candy Mountain Revisited
Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart
Candy Mountain jokes never get old to me. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteYes! Seemingly, the Fed's job is to make sure "Candy Mopuntain jokes" never go out of style.
To (nit)wit:
Too broke to go bankrupt
You just can't make this stuff up! All these "bad" debts are also held as "assets". What a system!
You don't quite have an apple and an apple here. Federal recpts are composed of all Fed taxes, plus fees, tariffs, and probably other things I don't know about.
ReplyDeleteLooking at tax receipts only, the amount coming from individuals has been pretty constant at about 50% of the total since the end of WW II. Corporate taxes dropped from roughly 40% to 10% by the early 80's, and have been flat since.
The rest of it - now essentially equal to individual tax, comes from FICA.
You can see the purdy pictures here.
Cheers!
JzB
mab,
ReplyDeleteFrom your link:
This year, hundreds of thousands of Americans are expected to be too broke to file for bankruptcy.
Doesn't that just figure. Sigh.
Jazzbumpa,
ReplyDeleteYou don't quite have an apple and an apple here. Federal recpts are composed of all Fed taxes, plus fees, tariffs, and probably other things I don't know about.
I would disagree.
Fees are taxes. Tariffs are taxes. FICA is a tax. The other things (like property taxes) are taxes.
ALL taxes eventually fall on individuals. If taxes were raised on corporations, corporations would simply pass them on to individuals. If the tax on gasoline is raised, individuals are the ones who absorb it.
Wages ultimately drive the economy. Over the long-term, corporations could survive if there were no profits (to be taxed), but they could not survive if there were no wages (to be taxed).
Further, if corporate profits went to zero
As a side note, my charts are based on all government receipts and expenditures (federal, state, and local).
ReplyDeleteFurther, if corporate profits went to zero
ReplyDeleteCopy/paste error.
Let's try again.
ReplyDeleteFurther, if corporate profits went to zero then wages wouldn't necessarily go to zero. In theory, a company can survive infinitely long with zero profits. It wouldn't even necessarily have to lay anyone off. Heck, we've seen companies bleed money for years and somehow survive (for years).
However, if wages went to zero then corporate profits would definitely go to zero. No company can survive if consumers have no money.
It doesn't end there though. It takes a job to pay rent in this increasingly rentier capitalism world.
Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. That's what matters most in my opinion.
State & Local Government: Current Receipts / Wage and Salary Disbursements
ReplyDeleteSee the problem here?
There's only so much blood in the turnips.