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Billionaires don't pay any taxes (in the US)?

There's an oft-repeated factoid that in the United States billionaires don't pay any taxes. This is yet again one of those lies that the left is trying to make true by sheer repetition.

The fact is that billionaires do pay taxes even in the United States.

The funny thing is that when you challenge the claim, what follows is a series of moving-the-goalposts.

"Billionaires don't pay any taxes."
"Where do you get that impression? Billionaires do very much pay taxes."
"But they pay less taxes than poor people."
"No, they actually pay more. A lot more."
"But they pay a smaller percentage of their income."

I have witnessed and participated in this kind of moving-the-goalposts discussion several times. First it's "they don't pay taxes", when challenged it becomes "they pay less taxes", and when that's also challenged it becomes "their tax percentage is lower".

Billionaires do indeed pay huge amount of taxes. For example Elon Musk pays more tax dollars than almost any other individual person in the country, and he is by far not the exception.

Even if their tax percentage is lower... so what? Why is that a problem? I have never heard any rational explanation why that's a problem.

"It's unfair." Unfair how? They are still paying a humongous amount more than poor people, who pay very little in taxes. How is that unfair?

"They can afford to pay more taxes percentagewise." So what if they can afford it? Just because they can afford it should they be forced to? Does that work with everything else? If you can afford buying a 30-dollar meal instead of a 15-dollar one, should you be forced to buy the former instead of the latter? Is it somehow "unfair" if you can buy the latter one?

Somehow people just can't get over this conception that poor people "pay more taxes" than rich people if their tax percentage is higher. No, they don't. That's not how percentages work.

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