The bottom 50% of Americans show a tax burden now that actually exceeds their disposable income. In reality, most of these people are somewhere between doing OK and scraping by, but just as the ultra-rich at the 1% and higher end of the spectrum have their peaks skewed due to people like Warren Buffet, the lower brackets will tend to balloon outward as well. This is why we have tax credits, welfare or food stamp programs, and other systems to support these people. My belief is that if we analyzed the lower brackets we would see a more steady and less abrupt progression, with people in the lowest quartile banging up against the 100% tax burden calculation in this analysis. Similarly, a more detailed analysis of the very rich, for example at 0.1% increments after 1%, would show a much more even distribution with taxes rising on a slope more similar to what is seen from 5% through 1.1%. [...]
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