The personal economics of taxes

In an earlier post, Nobel winner Prof. Prescott discussed tax policies in broad economic terms. For a different view, an MBA from University of Chicago explains tax policy in more personal terms:

I've claimed many times that the real burden of higher taxes falls not on the superrich, but on the upper-middle class and small business owners, whose wealth isn't fungible enough to arrange not to pay taxes.

Case in point is, of course, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who as it turns out, pays an effective tax rate of 12.4% on her over $6 million in annual income. If you include FICA, and unfortunely I have to, I pay almost twice as high a percentage in federal taxes as Ms Kerry, on an income that is approximately 1/125th of Ms Heinz Kerry's.