Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Being Privileged Makes You Unhappy?

The Wall Street Journal published an article this month, How Much Will Your Taxes Jump? that included this infographic:



The median household income in the US is $52,762. So, half of all households in this country made less than $52,762.

Why do the people depicted in this graphic look so downcast? They have incomes from 3 to 12 times the median! The bigger question ... Why would a prominent national newspaper design an infographic that represents a well-to-do minority of Americans (only 3.9% of American households bring in over $200K.)... and yet say "your" taxes?
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4 comments:

Ronald said...

Especially the retired people who have no increase in taxes. Why do they look sad? Do they want to pay more taxes?

Anonymous said...

Their taxes are just reverting back to what they were in 2000. Everyone knew the cut was going to expire in 10 years. What's the big deal? Even after taxes these people are still rich. $650K! Those are the faces of greed folks.

Bix said...

That's an interesting way to put it ... that these taxes are something they would have been paying anyway ... but for. What? What was the rationale for the Bush tax cuts in the first place? Growth? Jobs?

I just read in Wikipedia:

"The New York Times stated in an editorial that the full Bush-era tax cuts were the single biggest contributor to the deficit over the past decade, reducing revenues by about $1.8 trillion between 2002 and 2009."

Claudia said...

@Ronald LOL!! Hey, no one's stopping them from writing a check.