As usual listening to politicians and pundits opine on taxes is a totally meaningless exercise. One of the most oft repeated messages of late has been "The Top 10% of American income earners pay 70% of the income taxes." While this statement is no doubt accurate, it doesn't mean anything in an of itself. The reason this group pays what appears to be a disproportionate share of taxes is because they get a disproportionate share of the income.

As recently as 2007, the top 10% of income earners accounted for 50% of all the income. In a progressive tax system the top earners should be paying a somewhat larger proportion of their income which accounts for the 50% vs 70% shares.

However, the story doesn't end there. When you start to look at those top earners, you'll find that an ever larger portion of their intake comes not from salaries, but from investments which are taxed as capital gains. Long-term (assets held for more than 12 months) capital gains are currently taxed at just 15% for those in the 25% income tax bracket and above. That means that the people most likely to have a significant proportion of their income from capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than those in the middle class that typically have little or no capital gains.

Again using data from 2007, just before the bottom fell out of the housing market (destroying the net worth of a huge proportion of Americans), those same top 10% of Americans accounted for over 73% of the net worth. As a result of the recession and the unemployment that has come with it, that share has undoubtedly been skewed even more toward the top end.

Given that the top 10% of Americans account for such a large proportion of both income and overall wealth, the fact that they pay 70% percent of income taxes at least fair (from the perspective of the rich at least) and in fact if we really intend to have a progressive (or even fair) tax system. That's before you even factor in payroll taxes. One of the richest people in the world is Warren Buffet and even he acknowledges that in part because of the cap on payroll taxes, he pays only 17.4% of his income in taxes http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html That's half or less of the rate that most of the people in his office pay.

As the old statistician's line goes "tell me which side of the argument you are on and I will give you the statistics to prove that you are right." Any time that a conservative complains about being over-taxed, odds are they are lying.

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It's the Inequality, Stupid
Eleven charts that explain everything that's wrong with America.

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Whether we do it in a coordinated, predictable fashion or a random ad-hoc manner we all (by which I mean society as a whole) end up paying for the health care system. Ron Paul and others on the far right of the political spectrum are vehemently opposed to any kind of single payer health insurance strategy and like to tell us that people should be free to choose whether to buy health insurance. They also like to remind us even the uninsured still get health care.

Unfortunately, that care doesn't just drop out of the sky for free. Somewhere, somehow, we will pay for it. When a hospital takes in a seriously ill or injured patient that has no insurance, the cost of that treatment gets passed along to those that can pay. Medicines and supplies are not free and doctors, nurses, and technicians need to get paid.

When Kent Snyder died at age 49 in 2008 after raising $35 million for Ron Paul's first run for the White House, he left behind $400,000 in unpaid medical bills after an illness of just a couple of weeks. You and I ultimately have to pay to cover those costs through higher premiums and copays.

Unless we as a society are prepared to turn away those who can't or won't pay for care or insurance, we need to make fundamental changes. Many of those in attendance at the most recent GOP presidential debate apparently would choose to "Let Him Die!" I'm not one of those people and I firmly believe that we need both a single payer system that covers everyone and we need to take the profit motive out of health care.

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Ron Paul's Campaign Manager Died of Pneumonia, Penniless and Uninsured
At CNN's Tea Party-indulging debate on Monday, Ron Paul, a medical doctor, faced a pointed line of questioning from Wolf Blitzer regarding the case of an uninsured young man who suddenly found himself…

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I'm inclined to think that unless the crowd is at the Ice Hotel in Sweden, ambient room temperature will probably be higher

Reshared post from +Harry McCracken

The cumulative IQ in a crowd scene on Keeping Up With the Kardashians may or may not exceed ambient room temperature.

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Ten years on from 9/11there is at least one bit of positive news from a new Pew research poll on civil liberties. The percentage of Americans that feel they need to sacrifice their freedoms for security has continued to decline and now sits at just 40%. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, that number hit a high of 55% and has dropped steadily ever since which is to be expected.

Of course that is why politicians on both sides of the aisle (but especially the right) have continued to play up the fear factor in hopes of garnering support for oppressive surveillance, detention and torture practices.

Unfortunately having 40% of Americans willing to voluntarily sacrifice the same freedoms that these laws are purportedly meant to protect is still way too high. It's high time to educate people about the importance of the bill of rights and what it really means to everyone. Maybe then we will get a movement toward repealing the PATRIOT act.

Hey, a guy can dream right?

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Glenn Greenwald: Public opinion surprises
A new Pew poll contains some unexpected findings about how Americans view Terrorism and their rights

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ConAgra recently demonstrated conclusively that if you are going to use social media in your marketing and PR efforts, authenticity is a key ingredient. The processed food and agri-business company invited a group of bloggers to a dinner at a purported "pop-up restaurant" in New York with chef George Duran.

Unfortunately someone at ConAgra's PR agency Ketchum was a bit too clever and ignored the authenticity rule. The bloggers were served re-heated frozen dishes from a Marie Callendar's line. Unlike many "traditional journalists," bloggers are often far less averse to calling bullshit to company PR efforts, especially when they feel they have been misled.

When it became clear that Duran had not actually prepared the main courses, the bloggers did not take the whole stunt well. There is nothing wrong with taking non-traditional approaches to promoting new products. When done well, surprising the right audience with something unexpected, it can work very well and generate some great buzz.

When done badly as Ketchum did, the results can be decidedly negative. When social media writers feel like they have been scammed, they will tell the world and make you look foolish.

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When Bloggers Don’t Follow the Script, to ConAgra’s Chagrin
An exclusive meal for food lovers turned out to be a frozen-food switch — but the marketing strategy backfired.

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Government security theater is in high gear ahead of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Unfortunately the emphasis still seems to be on the theater aspect. First of all why are customs officials even questioning passengers on a domestic flight? More importantly what exactly is the point of questioning passengers coming OFF a flight that landed without incident? These are the sort of questions that if asked at all should be happening before people get on a plane not when they get off.

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Um, Shouldn't You Have Asked Me These Questions Before I Got on the Plane? – Dallas News – Unfair Park
?Got home from the airport last night just in time to see Channel 8's piece on how Dallas PD and…

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