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Friday, June 03, 2011

How the Federal Debt Was Created

How did the U.S. federal debt come about? Here's a plot of debt (left-hand scale) versus the percentage of federal revenue that comes from individuals and from corporations (right-hand scale):

US federal debt (red) vs. percentage of federal revenue from individuals (green) and from corporations (blue)
(Click chart to enlarge.)

The revenue percentage from individuals has stayed level for decades, while that from corporations has dropped to only 1/4th what it was in the 1950s.

Sources:
GPO: Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2012
US Treasury Dept: Historical Debt Outstanding – Annual (via Wikipedia)


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5 comments:

  1. charlesH7:49 PM

    David,

    A couple of points.

    The US has the highest corp tax rate in the world among advanced economies. What effect do you think this has on our job creation rate?

    Corporations don't pay taxes, shareholders and employees do.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Income_Taxes_By_Country.svg

    http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/3/13/saupload_us_oecd_effective_corp_tax_rate.png

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard Mercer10:08 PM

    Shareholders? The vast majority of shares are owned by the rich.

    "Here's 15 Mind-Blowing Charts About Wealth And Inequality In America >"

    http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4/the-gap-between-1-and-everyone-else-hasnt-been-this-bad-since-the-roaring-twenties-1
    *

    The gap between the top 1% and everyone else hasn't been this bad since the Roaring Twenties
    *

    Half of America has only 0.5% of America's stocks and bonds

    Top 10% has 89%
    *

    Real average earnings have not increased in 50 years
    *
    Republican tax cuts have significantly increased the wealth gap
    *
    America spreads its wealth FAR LESS than other developed countries
    *
    America's income spread is nearly twice the OECD average
    *
    The income gap is NOT growing in other countries, like France
    *
    Normalized to 1979, the top 1% have seen their share of America's income more than double. The bottom 90% have seen their portion shrink

    Only the shareholders share in the profits, not the workers, as a rule.

    In the real world, U.S. corporations do not PAY the highest taxes in the world.

    In fact, they often don't pay them at all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steve Bloom11:52 PM

    frflyer, I think you just gave charlesH an orgasm.

    ReplyDelete
  4. charlesH6:09 AM

    "U.S. GDP vs. Revenue vs. Spending
    Charting the United States’ GDP growth against spending and revenue growth paints a very telling picture; revenue (tax receipts) has collapsed in conjunction with the ‘Bush tax cuts’ and deficit spending has rapidly accelerated in the last three years of Democratic leadership. These numbers suggest that ‘far-left’ and ‘far-right’ ideologies are ripping America apart at the seams."


    http://www.thestreet.com/stock-market-news/11078128/us-gdp-vs-revenue-vs-spending.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dano12:40 PM

    and deficit spending has rapidly accelerated in the last three years of Democratic leadership.

    That's a blatantly false talking point as well, just like the false 'rich are disproportionately paying all the taxes' on the other thread.

    The spending has been on the social safety net. The rest of the spending on other things has actually gone down.

    HTH.

    Best,

    D

    ReplyDelete