Statistics don’t lie, people do

[babylonsister]

Statistics don’t lie, people do

by John Russonello, Fri Aug 20, 2010 at 12:10:57 PM EDT

(Cross-posted from Think it Through.)


The Washington Post created a new government statistic this week, and played it on page one – the average tax rate. The post story actually highlighted this in red ink: “If Obama’s 2011 budget is enacted: average {tax} rate rises to 21.4%.”

If you are wondering whether you pay the “average tax rate,” stop wondering – there is no such rate.

Federal income tax rates rise according to your income, and under the President’s budget, 90 percent of Americans – those who earn under $250,000 a year – will not experience any increase in their income tax rate, while those in the upper ten percent of income-earners will get a tax increase. Depending on how high their incomes are, some of the top ten percent will go from 25% to 26.1%, and the people at the very top will jump to 34.9%.

The Post interprets this to say, in effect, that the average American taxpayer will pay more in taxes next year. Are the editors cohabitating with Fox news, or are they just incompetent?

more...

http://mydd.com/users/john-russonello/posts/statistics-dont-lie-people-do-2

[liberal N proud]

1. Anything to feed the propaganda

And drive the agenda.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Most statistics of this type should be reported as median nt

[fasttense]

3. They are shilling for the uber wealthy elite.

If they make it look like the average American will suffer than the average American will do the bidding of the uber wealthy.

Spin, spin, spin till your head falls off.

[unblock]

4. bill gates should make a whistle-stop tour of poor neighborhoods

he would raise the average wealth of the people in the community well above the poverty level at each stop.