Message To Michael Moore: The Rich Pay The Most Taxes. Duh!

In his new movie "Capitalism: A Love Story", Michael Moore makes a startling assertion about where the wealth is in the US. He's quoted here in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

"The richest 1 percent have more financial wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined," Mr. Moore shouted.

In yesterday's National Post, columnist Kelly McParland goes through considerable speculation on where Moore got those numbers:

I can't find a reference anywhere else that backs up what he says. Besides, it's nuanced in such a way as to make it difficult to find supporting figures. That doesn't mean it's untrue, but there are lots of other numbers out there...

It's obvious to me where Moore got the numbers. True to form, he turned some real statistics upside down.

Here's the actual stats from the IRS via the Tax Foundation:

...the share of the tax burden borne by the top 1 percent now exceeds the share paid by the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers combined.

And there's this:

To put this in perspective, the top 1 percent is comprised of just 1.4 million taxpayers and they pay a larger share of the income tax burden now than the bottom 134 million taxpayers combined.

So what Moore has done is taken the IRS figures and spun them to fit his notion of what "financial wealth" might be. To prove capitalism is immoral, he needs to show that the rich are, well, rich. Actually, filthy, stinking, evil rich.

Look at these numbers through Moore's lens and you see a huge concentration of wealth. Look at the numbers in daylight and you see wealth for sure, but you also see who is really paying for virtually all government spending.

More analysis from the Tax Foundation:

... the recent IRS data bolsters the findings of an OECD study released last year showing that the U.S.—not France or Sweden—has the most progressive income tax system among OECD nations. We rely more heavily on the top 10 percent of taxpayers than does any nation and our poor people have the lowest tax burden of those in any nation.

See, according to Michael Moore, it's that evil greedy capitalism that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. Look at the numbers! The Pittsburgh crowd shouts back: "Take it away from them!"

When Moore talks about capitalism being legalized greed he ignores the greed implicit in the statement "Take it away from them!".

And I would ask Mr. Moore this: If the rabble gets its way and wealth is confiscated from the rich to be redistributed, what happens when there is no new wealth being created? What happens to his widely reported net worth of $50 million?