The statistics in James Miller`s recent guest column are very misleading: ”During the last decade all major groups in America have experienced a rise in their income.”
Of course incomes are up, but so is inflation. The important point is what happened to real wages accounting for inflation. They have dropped for middle and lower economic groups.
Second, he states that the top 10 percent of income earners paid a higher percentage of the nation`s taxes in 1989 than in 1979. That is not surprising. If their incomes have been rising while the incomes of the bottom 60 percent have been falling, they will be paying a larger percentage of the tax bill because they now have a larger percentage of the nation`s income. This does not even include the regressive Social Security tax, which weighs heaviest on those with lower incomes.
Let`s look at different statistics-by the IRS-quoted in Barlett and Steele`s book, ”America: What Went Wrong.” In 1959 the top 4 percent earned wages equal to the bottom 35 percent and in 1970 earned wages equal to the bottom 39 percent. But in 1989 the top 4 percent earned wages equal to the bottom 51 percent. The difference is worse if income from stocks and bonds is included.
