Black America has the highest poverty rate in the country, clocking in at 19.5%. Much of this is due to systemic racism. However, tax policy is also a factor.
The wealthy elite have always found ways to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. However, sometime in the early 2000s, it got worse when the world's richest people got away with paying $0 in taxes.
That wouldn't be the last time.
A tax system's purpose is to help redistribute resources and pay for public services. When the ultra-wealthy don't pay their taxes, everyone else winds up worse off.
Billionaires’ contributions would add $252 billion in revenue annually, which could nearly end poverty in this country. Instead, tax policy keeps wealth concentrated among a few people while the rest of us foot the burden of tax bills.
This system, created, maintained, and encouraged by the uber-rich, is precisely why we struggle to adequately address hunger, poverty, and inflation issues in this country. That’s why we must keep fighting for an economic system that prioritizes people over profits.