Below is a link to the latest graph from Wikipedia, eff. 2017, showing "Real Median Household [gross] Incomes" in the US, from 1985 to 2017. "Median" differs from "average" because it is the true midpoint: half over/half under. It is now almost a whopping $62K for all those American slackers out there! HALF of ALL American households are grossing LESS than that stupendous largesse!
I guess "real" means it's been adjusted to currently inflated dollars for comparison, which means that ACTUAL gross median incomes were lower back then. I recall that the ACTUAL Gross Median Household Income in 2013 was less than $54K. See how low it got during/after the Recession in 2008.
Don't let the steep "rise" in median incomes between 2011 and 2017 shown on the graph fool you: the entire scale of that graph is only between $50K and $62K. Basically "chickenfeed." I don't know how much larger they have gotten since those wonderful tax cuts last year.
Recall that the "middle class" INCOME tax cut that Barack Obama lobbied for and signed several years ago was for married couples having joint NET TAXABLE incomes up to $700K, which is about $1 Million GROSS. He originally proposed his income-tax cut for up to $250K TAXABLE which is at least $300K gross! "Middle Class," indeed! I daresay the TRUE "Middle Class" is somewhere between $55K and $70K GROSS. Back in 2013, 75% of ALL American households were UNDER $100K.
Note also that, ON TOP OF income taxes, ALL the schmucks in the TRUE Middle Class must also pay the FICA (SS) FLAT tax of 6.2%, matched by ALL their employers paying an additional 6.2% (which, of course, indirectly whacks all workers receiving lower wages thereby). And it is also well to note that FICA, being assessed on ALL GROSS EARNED INCOMES (wages and salaries) up to about $130K (but not over that), winds up whacking the portion of "gross" incomes being withheld and paid over for federal and state INCOME taxes! AND, because there is no allowable income-tax deduction for FICA taxes withheld, those schmucks also get to pay INCOME taxes on those FICA taxes also withheld! Neat! It's like a taxation House of Mirrors!
But the swells do not pay ANY FICA on earned incomes over about $130K NOR on their passive-income dividends, interest or capital gains. Nor should they, since SS benefits are limited. However, I can't recall ANYONE ever discussing the adverse impact of the FICA tax bite on the economy when jabbering about how badly INCOME tax cuts are needed to further stimulate all the "Job Creators" out there! Smells like I stepped into a pile of "trickle-down" now smeared on the bottom of my shoe!
Meanwhile, those Working Stiffs who actually spend about 100% of their shrinking net incomes into local economies get to pay proportionately higher taxes (thus leaving lower net incomes to spend) so that the Filthy Rich can get another INCOME tax cut that they will likely spend overseas on vacations, fine cars, whisky and artworks they can't possibly understand!
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